In The Fearless Freaks director Bradley Beesley sets out to share a little of that spectacle with his viewer, but more specifically, he makes the movie that only he could make, sorting though 400 hours of vintage Lips footage, including some home movies, to bring the viewer a peek at the forces that gave birth to the strange and wonderful personas behind The Flaming Lips.

Before I go any further though, I feel I should level with the reader: It's not a very good movie. As tragic as that is, and as badly as I wanted it to be amazing, in the end you get a documentary without a thesis. No point, in other words. What you do get is a lot more 70's home video footage that the film needs, and an absurd amount time spent discussing Long John Silver's, where lead singer Wayne Coyne worked in his youth.

But just before I reached my pain threshold, the film took a turn for the better, and pulled itself together. There's a very strangely powerful scene where the viewer watches as Flaming Lips drummer/keyboardist Steven prepares to shoot heroine while discussing what his drug addiction has cost him. The film actually takes a sunnier turn here, and along with news of Steven's cleaning up, we are treated to more current concert footage, albeit footage not especially shot to enhance or even display the spectacle of the show itself.

In the end The Fearless Freaks is only an okay documentary. Certainly not as well crafted as Beesley's earlier Okie Noodling, for which The Flaming Lips provided the score, but not altogether pedestrian either. However, this film cannot but be a disappointment to a Flaming Lips fan, as all the spectacle and delight that is associated with a Lips show is strangely, perhaps purposely, missing from this documentary. While not a bad documentary, it is surely a missed opportunity at greatness.