The much delayed verdict on Crumb v. Fight Club:
Crumb
It took me a very long time to finally sit down and watch this, largely because the subject matter is so uncomfortable. I don't particularly enjoy films about depressed, disturbed people. Crumb is an undoubtedly talented cartoonist, but the film is quite clearly more concerned with his personal struggles, beginning with those of his childhood.
While the influence of his sexual fantasies on his works is initially fascinating, at certain points I had to question exactly why I needed to know some of the information presented to me. For example, the revelation that Crumb has an extremely large penis of course reveals that the depictions of himself in his cartoons are accurate, but what exactly am I supposed to get out of this whole journey? In a way, Crumb answers that himself when discussing Goodfellas, saying that "not everything is for everybody"; he expands on this by saying that the dark underside of culture and society is not meant to be seen by everyone. Well said, sir. His cartoons probably are not my cup of tea, and while I found many aspects of his life quite interesting, the film was not a complete success in its attempts to tell me something new about art, culture, etc.
Fight Club
I am a huge fan of David Fincher, as you all know from my relentless campaigning for Zodiac during Filmspots season. He always brings something new to the table visually, if not necessarily thematically.
Fight Club is no exception, and I think Fincher does the absolute best he can with the source material. The merits of the film are fairly obvious, particularly the handling of the anti-corporate, anti-conformist attitude that the fighters develop and the interactions between Norton's character and Durden. That said, some of those themes are pretty tired, and during neither of the two times I have viewed the film was I able to completely buy the twist. I'm not saying it doesn't enhance the complexity of the film, but it's been used so often that it didn't feel completely true to the nature of the story.
I don't think I articulated that very well, but, nonetheless, I give the edge to Fight Club for its visual merits and ambition.