Critics reviews

Key to the success of ["Zappa"] is the editing, a pinballing assault of free association, claymation and gleeful profanity, which goes some way towards recreating what it must have been like to spend time inside Zappa’s head.

It seems less likely that many resistant to the music will be won over. Perhaps overwhelmed by interviews, experimental movies and live footage, Winter allows few compositions to play at length. But the full man emerges in all his contradictions and confrontations. Not just for the fans.

There’s perhaps a little too much telling us what a genius Zappa was without really letting us hear for ourselves... But there’s no denying Zappa’s personal charisma and devotion to his cause, nor his articulacy in its service. Winter has created a fascinating watch.

Winter’s film deserves a lot of credit for appreciating the full, intrepid range of Zappa’s music, though penetrating the leathery mystery of his personality is perhaps a tall order.

To call "Zappa"... 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... No one needed to stand up for this musical genius, yet "Zappa" does so nonetheless, and the fact that it goes the extra mile makes all the difference.

An engrossing look at Zappa and his legacy that nevertheless avoids the mere hagiography that films of this sort run the risk of embracing when not handled properly.

Maybe someone will come along and make the mind-flaying, “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters”-esque biopic this guy deserves, but this was never going to be that. Instead, Winter has assembled a commercially viable doc about the futility of making a commercially viable doc about Frank Zappa, and by that measure his film can only be an unqualified success.

[The film] is a sprawling, at times shaggy work, testing the outer limits of mood and tone, tangents and details. In fact, it’s a bit like a Frank Zappa song... In “Zappa,” the legendary artist’s uncompromising nature is bracing, bold and utterly refreshing.

["Zappa"] sometimes feels like an autobiography from beyond the grave, sometimes playing like a heartfelt tribute and sometimes adopting Zappa’s rhythms and style to be purposefully disorienting. It’s a Zappa-esque concoction — which, of course, is exactly what it ought to be... [It's] restless and playful and a bit assaultive,

What surprised me about “Zappa” — it’s the source of its emotional power — is that the movie insists on seeing Frank Zappa not from the outside but, rather, in the way that he saw himself... “Zappa” creates an emotional through line that lends a rare clarity to the life and work of this most idiosyncratic of all rock stars.

A richly three-dimensional portrait, "Zappa" manages to be at once impressed by Zappa’s talent and aware of his being a pain in the ass, while not limited by those perceptions.