Movies Similar to Frank Zappa: We Don't Mess Around

The Life and Loves of Beethoven(1937)

Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.

Hockshop Blues(1937)

Musical performers put on a show in a pawn shop to convince a man to give them the money they need to buy back their instruments.

3.0

Liberty's Secret(2016)

The daughter of a preacher becomes the centerpiece for a conservative political campaign but finds herself falling in love with a woman.

4.8

Mr. Holland's Opus(1995)

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

7.0

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Komeda, Komeda...(2012)

A feature-length documentary on the life and work of jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda.

0.0

Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music(2007)

Frank Scheffer's (collage like) documentary on the American composer and rock guitarist Frank Zappa, as broadcast by VPRO in the Netherlands April 22,2007. Most of what’s on here is seen before, particularly in Roelof Kier’s 1971 documentary and/or Scheffer’s own documentary “A present day composer refuses to die”. But there is some new stuff too, particularly interviews with Denny Walley, Haskell Wekler, Elliot Ingber and Bruce Fowler.

0.0

The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles(2014)

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, this magnificent star-studded tribute salutes the Fab Four. Appearing with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were guest musicians Joe Walsh, Gary Clark, Jr., Stevie Wonder, The Eurythmics, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Dave Grohl, Katy Perry, Peter Frampton, and more.

7.1

Ray(2004)

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

7.4

Karmen Gei(2001)

Bizet's Carmen gets a modern adaptation. Seducting, provocating, sensual. All the ingredients for a perfect drama. With her charm, Karmen gets out of many situations.

4.1

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Tom Waits for No One(1979)

In this rotoscope animation, Tom Waits sings about "The One That Got Away."

4.3

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Into the Meridian

A musical audiovisual journey in four parts. A young man finds himself unexpectedly taking an audiovisual odyssey into a world of surreality, slowly recounting his memories, revealing the puzzle pieces that led him to where he is, and maybe how he can get out.

0.0

School of Rock(2003)

Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his straight-A students the finer points of rock 'n' roll and the power of sticking it to the man. But as the school’s stern principal closes in and the Battle of the Bands looms, Dewey risks everything to prove that rock 'n' roll can change lives.

7.1

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock (Part I)(2019)

The fourth in a series of feature-length documentaries about Progressive rock written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder. Krautrock, Part 1 focuses on German progressive rock, popularly known as Krautrock, from in and around the Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg regions of Germany. Artist featured include Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, Faust and others.

0.0

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Jasper in a Jam(1946)

In this entertaining Puppetoon animated short film, a young boy, Jasper, gets trapped inside a pawnshop at midnight. All the musical instruments come to life and play jazz. A whooping wooden Indian chief self-animates as well, and goes on the warpath.

6.5

Daybreak Express(1957)

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

7.1

No Songs of Love(2005)

As Tobias, a young director, supposes that his girl-friend Ellen had an affair with his brother Markus, front man of "Hansen", one year ago, he decides to shoot a documentary about the band's next tour. When Ellen joins the project, everybody's emotions boil over, although they are observed all the time.

5.6

Lazarus(2018)

Inspired by the book, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Lazarus focuses on Thomas Newton, as he remains still on Earth - a 'man' unable to die, his head soaked in cheap gin and haunted by a past love. We follow Newton during the course of a few days where the arrival of another lost soul - might set him finally free.

10.0

A Night In Havana: Dizzy Gillespie In Cuba(1989)

A documentary on Dizzy Gillespie's landmark visit to Cuba and his performance at the Fifth International Jazz Festival in Havana, Cuba. Filmed in 1985 with Arturo Sandoval and Sayyd Abdul Al Khabyyr.

8.0

House of Ricordi(1954)

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

6.2

Jazzimation(1999)

A jazzy film in which the spectator is forced to look with the ears and listen with the eyes. An abstract film drawn directly on the computer.

0.0