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Film Review: Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words

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In Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words, Zappa says something along the lines of “most people know who I am without really knowing what I do”. And that’s not an overstatement. When I think about my introduction to Zappa it wasn’t through his music, it was through photos of him — the one of him on the toilet and the one of him in pigtails. He’s a seminal musician, most people know and understand that he’s a rock icon but it’s also true that most people haven’t heard his music (at least not knowingly). 

Eat That Question is made up entirely of pre-existing footage of Zappa from interviews, talk show segments, news segments etc. And there are two things that really come across from the documentary 1) he’s incredibly intelligent, witty and charismatic (not really surprising) 2) no one is talking about his music. In all of the interviews, in all of the clippings what you see is Frank Zappa continue to answer questions about his image, about his “vulgar” lyrics, about his distaste for convention. What most of the interviews manage to skip, and a point brought up by Zappa, is his music. It’s through Zappa’s insistence on the music as well as footage of him going through the musical and composition process that you begin to understand his dedication and genius. A rock legend who is also an accomplished classical music composer is really a feat. 

If you’re already a Frank Zappa fan than this movie will seem like little more than intro 101 course, and it is. For an artist who’s career spanned 30 plus years and 60 plus albums nothing short of a 12 part mini series will really do him justice. The best way to approach this movie is to think of it as a well done rumination or vignette on Frank Zappa the musical personality. The documentary is Frank Zappa subverting media frenzy and speculation and offering his version of himself. 

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words opens Friday June 24th at the Film Forum in New York City.

Review by Tamim Alnuweiri. Follow her at @tamimalnuweiri.



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