Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

R

Released Jun 24, 2016

1h 30m

Documentary

Music

List

92%

75 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Interviews, concert performances and archival footage offer insight into the life and career of musician Frank Zappa.

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Critics Consensus

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words offers an illuminating primer for Zappa novices as well as an entertaining retrospective for diehard fans.

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Audience Member

A worthwhile primer for the uninitiated and skeptical, the retrospective works because it focuses less on the extensive musical transformations and eclectic complexities that marked the artist's dense career and more on the aesthetic and ethical principles that guided his creativity, a full-throated commitment to individual expression, freedom of thought, and radical antiauthoritarianism.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This adoring documentary on Zappa is repetitive and rather boring. I like a lot of the early Mothers of Invention material, much less the later work that tries too hard to be edgy, Dadaist or just experimental in its self-conscious way. Zappa himself is obviously intelligent and thoughtful, sometimes articulate, but tends to repeat the same message over and over in these limited interviews mixed with concert footage that accentuates the later, more jarring compositions. The attempts at modernist sound experimentation are tepid, derivative and pretentious much of the time. Zappa seems a bit full of himself in the interviews, trying to be anti-establishment while at the same time bristling at the questions that try to peg him in that way. Sadly and annoyingly, he reveals only that he has few real insights or provocative ideas to share. His best work is actually the most "pop" in approach, songs that have catchy melodies with lyrics that critique or lampoon the prevailing social values and norms. That work is largely absent in this dreary documentary that just wants us to love the rebel-provocateur. The fact that the pro critics ate this up shows how truly lame and critically challenged they are.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fascinating look at a fascinating guy. Might have benefited from a tad more "shaping" and music, but any movie that leaves you wanting more and wanting to look into the subject more is a solid one.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

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Audience Member

He sure had a way with words.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

bill t

Excellent documentary about Frank Zappa here. I'm not at all a Zappa fan, but I do love a good music doc, and this is one of the best I've seen. The main hook here is that there's no narration, just a excellently compiled narrative of his TV interviews, from Today show appearances, to amazingly ridiculous interviews with what looks like small town cops. This is what did it for me. Just so carefully crafted and lovingly put together. See it whether you like or hate Zappa.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

4 1/2 Stars. Talk about a 1 of a kind musician and person, man.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Thorsten Schütte

Director

Steve Allen

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Theodore Bikel

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Tom Brokaw

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

In a perfect world, "Zappa in his own words" would really mean nothing but his music and lyrics, which is where he would be truly himself - but this is nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining watch.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 21, 2016

Full Review

Tom Long

Detroit News

Any true Zappa fan will eat this stuff up. For novices it may open up the universe.

Rated: B

Aug 19, 2016

Full Review

Calvin Wilson

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Eat That Question" may be of most interest to Zappa fans, but newcomers to the man and his music may also find it well worth a look.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 28, 2016

Full Review

Richard Crouse

Richard Crouse

A stripped down portrait of an American original whose compositions expose as much about him as his words do. The real Frank Zappa? You'll see him with your ears.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 4, 2021

Full Review

David Bax

Battleship Pretension

Despite Schütte's presentation of Zappa as a man defined by his social and political beliefs, the film actually finds him at his most endearing when it's just about his artistic pursuits.

Jan 6, 2021

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

An entertaining and pertinent film that many savvy doc-lovers will catch more than once.

Jun 10, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Interviews, concert performances and archival footage offer insight into the life and career of musician Frank Zappa.

Director: Thorsten Schütte
Producer: Thorsten Schütte
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Les Films du Poisson, UFA Fiction
Rating: R (Some Sexual References|Language|Brief Nudity)
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 24, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 28, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $353.8K
Runtime: 1h 30m

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