Head
1968, G, 86 min.
Directed by Bob Rafelson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Peter Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Annette Funicello, Timothy Carey.

The Monkees overstepped in a most fascinating manner during their jump from the little screen to the big. Bob Rafelson and co-conceptualist Jack Nicholson did for the Monkees what Richard Lester did for the Beatles with A Hard Day’s Night and Help!: created a wacked-out, aimless universe that constantly riffs on popular culture. Not a hit at the time with the regular Monkees fans, the rarely screened Head has since grown in critical stature. It’s also the film Rafelson and Nicholson made before their zeitgeist-defining film, Five Easy Pieces. With music and lots of cameos. (Presented by Rhino Releasing and High Times).

This article appears in December 16 • 2005.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.