Zappa (2020)

This documentary about the seminal rock musician Frank Zappa thrilled me on many levels (Jack loved it, too). First, I've been a fan since the 1960s and saw his groups live many times before his death at almost 53 in 1993. Second, it focused on his musicality--his compositions and orchestrations. Third, I lived one block away from his family's Hollywood Hills compound from 1985-2001.

Zappa's music is not for everyone. One wag once wrote that Zappa's music would cause some people to run screaming from the room. Clearly, I'm not one of those people. When I saw him perform I loved, among other things, watching him conduct, as the music changed time signatures quickly and often. And then there was his melding of rock, soul, and classical genres. You will learn a lot about Zappa's musical influences in the movie.

Director Alex Winter convinced Zappa's widow Gail to allow access to Frank's archives, which she had not given to anyone else, because of Winter's promise to concentrate on the complex musicality of Frank's work. And his work is complex, for which he was harassed pretty much his entire career. The vintage and new footage are well-chosen and beautifully edited by Mike J. Nichols.

Veteran composer John Frizzell is listed as composer but it's likely that you won't remember his score. Not sure where to send novices to listen to Zappa's music. Write me if you want a playlist (babetteflix at gmail) and I'll make one up.

As a die-hard Frank Zappa fan, I and my compatriots follow the career of his elder son Dweezil (born 1969), an accomplished guitarist, composer, and producer. We were saddened to learn that Gail and the two younger siblings Ahmet and Diva had been taking to the courts to try to prevent Dweezil from profiting from his own last name. I had met Gail in the late 1990s, as we both were involved in a project to preserve a nearby mountain for wildlife migration when developers wanted to build on it. A nice word would be that she was protective of Frank's legacy at the time. And when we saw Dweezil's band perform this century, he was bitter, to say the least. 

I'm glad to have found notice that Ahmet and Diva reconciled with Moon and Dweezil in 2018, spurred, no doubt, by their mother's death in 2015. But Dweezil is nearly absent from the movie, and Moon appears only in relation to her vocals on 1982's Valley Girl (here's a video of her performing with dancers and a recorded background track).

My favorite gig of Frank's was at the Circle Star Theatre in northern California. A little research tells me that it was July 19, 1974, when I was living in the Bay Area. I remember Ruth Underwood's prodigious percussion stylings and Frank's rude remarks about her breasts (he famously did not use drugs, but sex and cigarettes were his addictions). Napoleon Murphy Brock provided the soulful vocals. Both are in this movie, along with dozens of other musicians, many of whom I recognized. Underwood had a child at my daughter's elementary school in the 1990s and I was able to tell her in person that I was a fan. Her scenes in the movie are lovely.

I have too many Zappa stories to tell here, so I will stop. Winter played Bill in the Bill & Ted movie series, and this is his sixth documentary feature. 

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are bobbing their heads with an average of 96%, while its audiences are glancing at the exit sign at 78.

There's no explanation for why I waited so long to see this, but we finally streamed it on Hulu April 27. It is available on other platforms as well.