200 MOTELS (THE MOVIE)

I only saw 200 Motels once and have no immediate way of watching it again, but hopefully I can still say something intelligent about it. As a film, it's terrible, absolute rubbish. Musically it isn't much more solid, although it does paint a picture of the Mothers' remarkable versatility. Jimmy Carl Black steals the show, as he often does when he's in the drummer chair, but from what I can remember he doesn't do any actual drumming on this. Frank's guitar playing is awesome, and the movie does have its share of funny moments.

But what keeps the movie from being a total throwaway is Frank's usual spot-on social critique. The west coast "Me" generation is torn a new one all throughout the movie. Some of the characters spend the film in a drug-fueled haze, and far from being a psychedelic experience the movie is actually a condemnation of that psychedelic experience. Zappa was the only one who saw the shallowness of the hippies, and deflates their experience and punctures the American Dream all throughout. I'd be hard-pressed to recall any specific examples; as I said, I only saw the film once. But it's essentially the satire of "We're Only In It For the Money" translated to the screen.

Plot is terrible, some of the music is great but most of it is there for humor; it's the Twain-style satire that keeps the rating respectable.