The Monkees - Head [VHS]
by Bob Rafelson

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VHS Movie Reviews of The Monkees - Head [VHS]

Movie Review: Oh... Wow... like...
Summary: 5 Stars

When I came across it in later years (first kid just having arrived), I was totaly in awe. This film is like, a masterpiece, man. Even if you take into account the fact that it must have been conceived under the influence, it is very clever. The whole theme of head is basically the idea of continuity, or rather the issue of continuity. What can you do if you are prepared to view a movie as a series of mere transformations? The whole point is not so much that there isn't a plot, but that the world the Monkees really live in is in fact too complex and confusing to support one. Over and over again they find themselves way out of their depth, pursued, chased, threatened by incomprehensible enemies, sometimes known, sometimes familiar, but never explained much. At times there are moments of tenderness, even real desire and longing, but these are transitory, often followed by more confusion.

The music is very good and gives you a very nostaligic feeling about Vietnam and Carole King and all those long ago days. Even Uncle Frank Zappa makes an appearance, albeit under strange circumstances (which I have no doubt he specified in advance). My son (who is now 15 or so) thinks the funniest scene is when Mickey gets angry with the Coke machine in the desert.

The humour is clearly a general product of Mickey Dolenze's fevered imagination. The slippage of the real with the unreal is very much in line with the sort of visual and conceptual surrealism that Zappa pursued in his more inspired 60's sessions. The fact that the film director and crew are often featured (or at least appear from time to time, looking their best to be totally cool and just working), and the often unrehearsed feel for some of the scenes (especially the scene after the cafe) gives you a really unusual feeling of being integrated in with the movie. Given the fact that this is one of the most psychedelic and mind twisting movies ever anyway, and especially if you're smoking anything, you'll walk away from this and maybe miss the door and go straight throught the wall.

Don't miss this for goodness sake.

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