‘Zappa’ Biopic an Excellent Adventure for Filmmaker Alex Winter

People may be excused if, on first listen, they don’t take Frank Zappa’s music seriously. With his zany lyrics, unconventional metres and predilection for the xylophone, his songs often sound more fitting for a Looney Tunes soundtrack than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But that would be a mistake. As a new documentary from director Alex Winter makes clear, Zappa wasn’t just a prolific musical genius, he was also a major cultural icon who helped shape the art scene of the 1960s and beyond.

Winter, best known for playing Bill in the “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” film franchise, spent six years sifting through hundreds of hours of archival material to create “Zappa,” a two-hour romp that chronicles Zappa’s career, from “Freak Out!”, the 1966 debut album by the Mothers of Invention, to his appearances before the U.S. Congress in the 1980s speaking out against the Parents Music Resource Center. Zappa died in 1993 at age 52.