200 Motels (1971)

200 Motels is Frank Zappa’s outrageous, psychedelic precursor to the birth of the music video – his hilarious response to the burning question of what to do with road-wrecked musicians. Should they rip off the motel’s towels and ashtrays or merely quit the group? Dare they rebel against the tyranny of the merciless Zappa? The Mothers of Invention, as irrepressible as Zappa himself, wreck havoc in Centerville, a typical American town with its Rancid Boutique, Cheesy Motel, Fake Nightclub, Redneck Eats Cafe, groupies and an honest-to-goodness Main Street. Ringo Starr, in Zappa disguise and carrying an oil lamp, narrates. Theodore Bikel is government agent Rance Muhammitz. The hysterically funny man behind such hits as Valley Girl, Dancin’ Fool and Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow, Zappa reasserts his genius in this zaniest piece of filmusical fantasy-comedy since The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.