July 9, 2005

• Tonight's movie: 'The Fearless Freaks,' which is a documentary about the band The Flaming Lips.

  I've always thought of the Flaming Lips as some folks who had been around a while, but who were finally finding their own artistic stride. But I missed the boat; they'd been reaching their stride for a while now. It's just the success I've been noticing.

  This documentary was put together by a friend of the band, who has been making home movies of them since high school, and did a lot of their videos. It's very, very intimate. At one point the drummer describes his heroin addiction while rigging up and getting ready to shoot up, saying, "I probably shouldn't let you film this, but I trust you."

  But it's not all heroin addicts and other seediness. It's infused with the charisma of Wayne Coyne, front man, master of ceremonies, and general font of forward motion.

  My favorite moment, and I really think the moment when the movie turns the corner into its most interesting chapter, is when the band loses a guitar player and they take it as a sign to reinvent themselves. They do some risky performances, where they give jam boxes to the audience, and the performance is pre-recorded on 40 tapes that are put in the jam boxes and turned on simultaneously.

  Describing these events, Coyne says that he was terrified they wouldn't work, but he came to realize that his audience trusts him. That they were truly on his side. And so he wanted to work to make that trust worthwhile.

  So basically, that's the underlying theme of this movie: Trust. And not only that, but trust that whimsy will kick melancholy's ass.

  • 3:29 am
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