Frank doco introduces a unique character

Zappa (R16, 127 mins) Directed by Alex Winter Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett

When he died in 1993, at the age of 52, Frank Zappa had recorded more than 60 albums of music, plus another 50 albums worth, at least, of unreleased material.

There were also movies, film soundtracks, one-offs, collaborations and an entire basement full of the audio, artistic and written archive of an artist for whom the terms ‘‘driven’’ and ‘‘prolific’’ are pathetically inadequate.

But even after watching all of Zappa’s myriad interviews, performances and selfmythologising, no-one could claim to really have much idea what was going on in the mind of this reticent individual, who came to life on stage without ever surrendering his privacy.

Zappa was there before Bowie and Prince – both of whom acknowledged the trail he had blazed – an artist’s artist and a composer’s composer, just trying, in his own words ‘‘to get a good performance and a good recording of everything I ever wrote, so that I can hear the music

Zappa was there before Bowie and Prince – both of whom acknowledged the trail he had blazed – an artist’s artist and a composer’s composer.

the way it sounded to me when I wrote it.

‘‘And if other people want to hear that as well, that’s fine. But it’s not necessary’’.

It’s a hell of a kaupapa. Robust, easily expressed, a clear target to aim for – and almost certainly utterly unobtainable.

But what’s a life for, if not to fail, gloriously.

So there’s that: Zappa the artist, icon, restless, indefatigable musical explorer and sonic experimentalist, who saw himself as some latter-day Stravinsky or Edgard Varese – and may even have been right.

And then, there is the other Zappa; the faithless asshat to everyone around him – most of all his wife Gail – and a self-confessed friend to no-one.

A man who became a late-night TV talk show staple and an unlikely MTV star via a collaboration with his 15-year-old daughter Moon Unit. (Zappa’s request to his wife as he left on tour, knowing that their first child would be born while he was away, was: ‘‘If it’s a girl, name her Moon, if it’s a boy, name him Motorhead’’.)

Director Alex Winter

(The Panama Papers, but he’ll always be best known for playing Bill in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequels) captures some of Zappa’s life sublimely well and at other times flounders, maybe caught up in his love and respect for the man’s creativity, even as Zappa himself is saying something jawdroppingly asinine and selfabsorbed on screen.

But mostly, Zappa is a terrific couple of hours, well-spent. If you’re a fan already, this will be essential viewing.

But if you’re a recent arrival, or are just curious as to what the cult of Zappa the performer and composer is founded on, Zappa isa fine introduction to the character, the music and the times.

Especially in its last 15 minutes or so, as Winter and his editors pull together disparate threads to create a triumphal collage set against Zappa’s final public performances.

For that final flourish, and for the music at least, bravo.