Larry "Wild Man" Fischer

Derailroaded: Inside The Mind Of Larry "Wild Man" Fischer is currently running on Sundance Channel.

Josh Rubin's strangely fascinating documentary parses the life of outsider musician Larry "Wild Man" Fischer. Growing up in the '50s, Fischer was an undiagnosed manic-depressive schizophrenic who, after attacking his mother with a knife, landed in a mental asylum.

Eventually he headed to California in the late '60s, where Frank Zappa discovered him singing his own strange compositions for a dime a song along Sunset Boulevard. In a strangulated growl somewhere between a possessed Tiny Tim and Bobcat Goldthwait, Fischer's music is something of an acquired taste. Zappa championed him and he led a convoluted career appearing on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and landing on the British Top 50 charts.

Derailroaded is interspersed with plenty of talking heads delivering anecdotes, as well as footage of Fischer performing, but ultimately this is a film not about music or fame, but about the ravages of mental illness. Despite many moments of levity—such as a completely bizarre re-enactment of an interview between Dr. Demento and Frank Zappa, done with puppets—it's a devastating portrait of delusion and fathomless despair.

You sure can see the Zappa influence but man, oh man, was the poor guy ever out there.

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