'Zappa' Review: A Modernist Mozart Who Happened to Be a Rock Star
0There is no such thing as a casual Frank Zappa fan — it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. (Really, there’s no such thing as a casual Frank Zappa listener, period: You either immediately recoil from his grandiose, often goofy odes to dancin’ fools and yellow snow, self-promoting pimps and and S&M aficionados … or you end friendships arguing over which bootleg of his Over Nite Sensation ’73 shows is the best.) And on a scale from one to plays-in-a-Joe’s-Garage-cover-band, we’d put Alex Winter’s level of worship somewhere near an eight. To call Zappa, his exhaustive new documentary, a labor of love would be putting it lightly — it’s a six-years-in-the-making valentine to someone who’s obviously an idol to the actor-filmmaker. Having gained the family’s blessing and access to the prolific musician’s personal vault, Winter has unearthed an ungodly amount of rarely seen and heard stuff, from early home movies to interviews filmed a few months before Zappa’s death in 1993. That alone would make this essential viewing for the type of folks who’d walk down their wedding aisle to the skronk-funk of “Peaches En Regalia.” But the documentarian has a secondary agenda in mind. So yes, you get the full rockumentary treatment: his childhood and Eisenhower-era teen years, when this son of a chemist was obsessed with blowing things up; his discovery of musical expression, courtesy of an “evil, vile” album by French composer Edgard Varèse; his introduction to R&B and gutbucket blues courtesy of Don Van Vilet, the future Captain Beefheart; and how being framed by the vice squad in Cucamonga, California, fueled his lifelong rebellious streak. The first iteration of the Mothers of Invention gets a good amount of screen time; the second “Flo & Eddie” group (when the Turtles’ Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan joined a new touring band), a little less so. We see how his going-independent gamble in the ’70s paid off handsomely, and how the Barking Pumpkin era begat “Valley Girl,” which gave Zappa the one thing he didn’t want: a hit record. Reviews 'Zappa': 11 Things We Learned From the Long-Awaited Authorized Documentary Frank Zappa: 1940-1993 Reviews 30 Wild David Bowie Duets and Collaborations 20 Essential Grateful Dead Shows Winter also makes sure he pays lip service to Zappa’s collaborators, some peripheral and some key. A who’s who of musical virtuosos (Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, Adrian Belew, Chester Thompson) whiz by in clips, though only Vai ascends to talking-head status. Several Mothers players, notably Ruth Underwood and Bunk Gardner, share anecdotes about “the ersatz Pied Piper of Laurel Canyon,” as does Alice Cooper and GTOs superstar Pamela Des Barres. Graphic artist Cal Schenkel and Zappa’s animator-in-residence Bruce Bickford get credit where credit is due in regards to the visual components. Most importantly, Winter gives a good deal of the spotlight to the late Gail Zappa, a doe-eyed hippie chick who met Frank in the mid-’60s and became his wif