Frankly I was a bit disappointed with this film, despite it being beautifully shot and edited. I found the biographical aspect of it spotty and strangely incomplete - zero mention of his mentor Ernie Stires, Tom Marshall: his lyricist/co-writer on over 100 Phish songs, his time at Goddard college, his early music projects pre-Phish, or even how/at what age he started playing guitar and writing songs! In place of these crucial components of his backstory we're treated to intimate and sometimes awkward conversations between Trey and his parents, children, spouse, and of course his brethren in Phish, and while these allow us to better know him as a father, friend and human, they do little to shed light on who he is as an artist and how he managed to arrive at the place where someone would make a doc on him in the first place.
As far as this film being billed as an inside look at his creative process, we do get to see him working out some new material with various band members and there is one cool scene of him layering in various parts himself on a demo...but I personally was hoping for more insight into things like how he warms up before a show, what some of his written music on paper looks like, maybe a look into how he's crafted the handful of orchestral works to his name, which get zero mention.
Lastly, despite the intimate glimpse into his personal life (including the passing of a close friend) by the end we don't really know anymore than when we started about any of Trey's spiritual beliefs, what drives his often Dharma-like, peace and love inflected lyrics, and what transformation if any, he underwent in dealing with and beating his substance addiction.
As a longtime Phan and a musician for whom Trey was a significant influence, I was still able to enjoy this film for what it was as I'm sure many will, but at best it is two hours of skimming the surface of one of the deepest, most interesting and influential guitarist/composers of his generation.
