I thought it was a fictional retelling of Robert Crumb's life because he is such a bizarre character IRL that you can't tell if he's an actor or not. After a few scenes I realized and then checked the movie description and cast to confirm. His family is even weirder. Literally autistic or at least on the spectrum. Gets pretty dark and they are unabashedly degenerate. Seems like they all have a genetic mutation where they can't balance their subconscious and frontal lobe, or right and left hemispheres. There's a common theme of impulse control and manifesting the id. R Crumb got lucky, but the rest of his family not at all. For example, R Crumb's experimentation with drugs brought some revolutionary art for its time. But it seems like one of his brothers lost his mind completely and makes the typical junkie art you'd see in your stoner friend's party house.
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All things considered Robert's still a very inspirational figure who expresses many of the same counter current sentiments that many of /ourguys/ have today. Gotta respect the money he turned down and the ability to reject groups trying to force him into a feminist icon or a hippie. Other than that, I think like anyone in the art scene the analysis of his work exaggerates the importance of what he's doing. He admits himself that it's largely unconscious. But if you can ignore the over hype and you're fascinated in art give it a watch.Â
Side note: as I was watching this and seeing Crumb with his young wife I thought about an indie movie I saw years ago called "Ghostworld" with Steve Bucimi. Steve's character even puts on some old 1930's Black Soul/Folk whatever record and is equally as critical about modern society. Just googled and I guess the same director of this directed that. 100% based on him and has an easter egg as well:
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https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/qaoybq/in_ghost_world_2001_enid_asks_about_a_record_by_r/