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Like Alan Zweig's previous documentary Vinyl, I, Curmudgeon isn't a terribly impressive piece of filmmaking on a technical or compositional level. However, like Vinyl, it entertainingly taps into a vein of popular culture often discussed by people with alternative/alienated sensibilities, but rarely covered in film (or anywhere in the mainstream media, for that matter). The movie is dominated by straightforward talking-head interviews with a wide variety of characters who -- like Zweig himself -- are amusingly irritated with the general state of things in the world, and with the particular lameness of many aspects of popular culture, social mores, and fellow humans' behavior. You might fear that watching an hour and a half of this could be a dreary, drainingly depressing experience. But actually this motley collection of grousers are pretty fun to listen to, whether it's Mark Eitzel describing with devilish glee how he got thrown out of a party for confronting a dot.com dweeb, or the young guy who goes on at length at how asinine the expression "it's all good" is. The necessary use of the description "the young guy," alas, highlights one of the film's shortcomings: none of the interviewees are identified, even the ones who might be recognizable to many viewers (such as American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar, who seems peculiarly low-energy and taciturn in his segments). Another flaw that seems like it could have been easily eliminated is the distracting musical soundtrack, with the music blended so uncomfortably into the mix that it often sounds like someone forgot to turn off a bland commercial radio station droning in the background. Tune out the music, concentrate on the talk, and it's still a fairly enjoyable collective rant-on-film, especially if you have any curmudgeonly sensibilities yourself.