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Created Jul 09, 2016 06:07PM PST • Edited Jul 03, 2022 09:01AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Eat That Question is well titled. Frank Zappa in His Own Words is FZ waxing loquacious, repeatedly. Zappa, the pugnacious, contradictory and iconoclastic rockstar, indeed the consummate rockstar, trades heavily on his privilege and arrogance, by turns funny, shocking and ridiculous, a Trump the Guitar God.

   Not that his politics are the same as the King of Con, just that his pronouncements pale next to his talents.

   Man could he play guitar – crunchy chords and powerful leads. One bit of shade in Eat That Question is a concert shot of Zappa playing Cosmik Debris. FZ fans know the great lead guitar that kicks in right after the second verse. “Don’t waste your time” sings Zappa through the down low. Then bang comes his lead! Only FZ has some performance anxiety in the live shot captured in the film, noodling around for entirely too long before finally finding a lead that is a pale imitation of the classic he laid down on the Apostrophe album.

   Bottom Line

   Guys who brighten up when hearing the initials F.Z. will find this FZ documentary the crux of the biscuit.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Frank Zappa on The Steve Allen Show

   Major highlight of the film is a teenage, clean-shaven Frank Zappa from Baltimore, getting a full segment on The Steve Allen Show. Frank proceeds to orchestrate an avant-garde musical performance involving an upside down bicycle, a bunch of confused musicians, two drumsticks and a violin bow. Steve Allen ends by declaring it very interesting, but please never come back on the show.

   Zappa was Zappa even in high school, before he ever grew a mustache.

   What’s My Line

   Arlene Francis can’t guess it right. Gene Rayburn can’t either. Soupy Sales does. Soupy knows who Frank Zappa is.

   Katie Couric interviews Frank Zappa on the Today Show.

   Václav Havel was a big fan.

   Adrian Belew, Mike Douglas & George Duke appear.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Zappa Family Productions opened up the family footage vault to make this rockumentary possible.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

    Mostly talking, with not nearly enough music.

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

17. Sex Titillating 1.8

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Profane 3.1

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    Perhaps the most fascinating thing revealed in the doc is how important Zappa was to fans behind the Iron Curtain, and how awestruck they were to see him in person after the Communists gave up the ghost.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0