mostly for Zappa fans

moonisgod

If you don't know Frank Zappa, you won't like this movie.  It's full of in-jokes, references to previous material and basic on-camera weirdness that can only be understood in context.  Of course, it also works in reverse: if you enjoy Frank Zappa, like I do, you'll love to see this Zappa masterpiece. Zappa references this movie in loads of albums (Playground Psychotics, Best band you never heard in Your Life), and finally getting to see the much talked about magnum opus culminates the Zappa experience.  The in-jokes make sense when you look at the rest of the Zappa past, and so does the premise of "a look at life on the road".

The context aside, the movie is just weird.  It's not really "life on the road", it's random scenes of Keith Moon as a nun, a man falling in love with a vacuum cleaner and the band scheming against its leader.  There's no real plotline, and Zappa isn't even played by himself for half the film (he's played by Ringo Starr).  Honestly, it's not that good.  Unless you're a fan of the Zappa mystique, it won't make much sense.  Even the dynamite soundtrack is lost due to bad sound quality.

score /10

moonisgod 26 July 2000

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0114420/