Terry Zwigoff’s profound documentary Crumb (A-) covers the life of an underground artist and his dysfunctional family with brazen and bizarre panache. Scored with nickelodeon-style three-penny opera music and riddled with the art that made its subject famous, the film chronicles Robert Crumb’s disturbing influences and counter-cultural outputs (he’s the guy who first shocked with the X-rated Fritz the Cat character). Playing out like a psychedelic horror-show, the film is like a sketchbook with Crumb’s stream of consciousness continually building the narrative, and you just can’t look away.

Somewhere on the cultural spectrum between Norman Rockwell and David Lynch, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary Brother’s Keeper (A-) plays out like a real-life murder mystery with penetrating character study, pastoral splendor and interpersonal interactions begging the question of what makes a community tick. Chronicling the lives of four elderly, nearly illiterate farmer brothers who have spent their entire lives in the same dilapidated shack, this cult documentary takes on the power of high-profile Hollywood films when one brother mysteriously dies in his sleep and a surprising yarn ensues. The film asks questions about small-town America and will hold interest as final verdicts unfold.