"Crumb" was met with wide acclaim from critics, earning a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 43 reviews, with an average score of 8.4/10. Gene Siskel rated "Crumb" as the best film of the year. Roger Ebert gave the film four (of four) stars, writing that ""Crumb" is a film that gives new meaning to the notion of art as therapy." In "The Washington Post", Desson Howe's review was similarly positive. The "San Francisco Chronicle" rated the film as "wild applause", as critic Edward Guthmann called the film "one of the most provocative, haunting documentaries of the last decade." He also noted that Robert Crumb and wife Aline had drawn a "scornful" cartoon about the film in "The New Yorker".