The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnati is a Canadian film, released in 1996.
[1] Directed by Michael McNamara and starring Alan Williams, the film was an adaptation of Williams' Cockroach trilogy of one-man theatrical shows.
[2] Based on a series of plays by Alan Williams, an aging hippie and rock-fanatic-turned-stand-up-comic who calls himself ‘The Captain’ (Williams), convinces a couple of novice filmmakers (Deborah Drakeford and Oliver Dennis) to help him record his ‘pure thoughts’ – a filmic testament of his experiences and observations of the past three decades.
What follows is a series of wildly complex, sardonic anecdotes and theories about rock ‘n’ roll, hero-worship, hallucinations, drugs, madness, paranoia, rebellion, nuclear dread and the search for individual integrity in a world on the brink of cultural and physical destruction.
The title references the 1973 novelty song "The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati", by Rose and the Arrangement (a.k.a.