Watched: January 21 2023

Director: Bob Rafelson

Starring: The Monkees

Year: 1968

Runtime: 1h 26min

So. Head. It’s really… something. Now, we’ll be the first to admit we went into this knowing next to nothing about The Monkees, except that they were the One Direction of their time and that they started as a sitcom rather than a band. And there our knowledge ended. Now, after watching Head we know…very little more.

Any plot in the movie is hard to find, but that’s ok – we’re not usually too bothered with plot. There are music and dance numbers, silly sketches and all manners of absurdity, which is more than enough. And to be fair – we would probably have loved to have seen something like this from a favourite band/group in our teens. However, without a relationship with The Monkees it’s a bit of a curious phenomenon.

So, let’s do the positives first: we enjoyed the self-deprecating humour (“God’s gift to 8-year-olds” is pretty spot on!), the silliness and absurdity, the desert war bits, the walking through sets, Toni Basil, the style and the concept. However, we weren’t entirely sold on the execution of it.

Maybe we’re too spoiled having grown up in a world where Monty Python had already set the standard for absurd, silly and hilarious weirdness decades before we watched this? Maybe we just didn’t get it? While we far from disliked this, we were left with the impression that the viewing experience might have been vastly improved by either being fans of The Monkees, watching this when it was first released, or being very, very high. Licorice tea just didn’t do the trick…

What we learned: We don’t do enough drugs.

Next time: If…. (1968)