A biographical look at musician Frank Zappa, revealing among other things his often individualist, libertarian thinking and politics. [ Zappa credits: Dir: Alex Winter/ David Bowie, Arsenio Hall, Mick Jagger/ 129 min/ Documentary, Biography/ Individualism/ 2020]
External Reviews
“The film is a complex and surprisingly satisfying portrait of an artist who defiantly marched to the beat of a different drummer (or two).”
–Roger Ebert
“What Zappa had to say was always unpredictable. Politically he was a libertarian who wanted the government out of his life, philosophically a secular humanist who wanted the church out of his government…Zappa was, in every sense, a frontier spirit.”
–Chicago Reader
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“Zappa is the subject of an eponymous new documentary by Alex Winter, whose previous films include Downloaded (a study of Napster and unauthorized file sharing), Deep Web (a look at Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road), and Trust Machine (an exploration of how blockchain technology decentralizes power). ‘Zappa,’ says Winter, ‘matters because he was an extremely talented and composer but also because…he was very anti-authoritarian, very anti-fascist, very pro–citizens’ rights. He also saw the tech revolution coming. In all of these extremely interesting ways, Zappa was ahead of the curve.’ Although his politics, like his music, defy easy (or any, really) categorization, Winter says that Zappa’s overriding beliefs in free speech, individualism, and entrepreneurship carried strong libertarian connotations.”
–Reason