"Crop circles" is an increasingly inaccurate name for the still-unexplained phenomenon of crushed-plant patterns appearing in fields around the world. The first shapes to be studied in any detail were simple circles, but in the '90s, more complex designs began appearing, including fractal patterns, insect shapes, astoundingly complex mandalas, and mathematically precise abstract symbols spanning thousands of feet from end to end. So claims Crop Circles: Quest For Truth, a new film by Academy Award-nominated documentarian William Gazecki (Waco: The Rules Of Engagement). Unfortunately, the two-hour movie offers surprisingly few useful facts. Gazecki presents a lengthy parade of crop-circle enthusiasts to discuss the shapes' symbolism and construction, but virtually all of them are minimally identified with one-word titles like "author," "researcher," and, in one memorable case, "philosopher." No attempt is made to link the speakers, evaluate their work, or make them stand out as individuals, either personally or professionally. They're mostly interchangeable mouthpieces who spout their opinions and the results of their studies with equal enthusiasm. Many focus on the geometry of crop formations, which often display intricate mathematical ratios and mimic shapes and proportions found both in nature and in humanity's traditional sacred symbols. They also present the chemical changes in the crushed plants as proof that crop circles aren't all hoaxes, and offer some halfhearted scientific theories that don't rely on aliens or supernatural events. But ultimately, a great deal is left unsaid. Gazecki shows dozens of riveting aerial shots of jaw-dropping formations, but he rarely cites where or when the shapes were found. He doesn't discuss numbers, distribution, or whether any particular fields have been marked more than once, nor does he address the hoaxes that actually have taken place. The film remains frustratingly focused on uncontextualized individual events rather than the phenomenon as a whole, and as such, it rapidly becomes redundant in its grainy, washed-out digital-video images of excited people poking at bent plants, or studying and manipulating computer-generated images. Crop Circles does liven up toward the end, as phrases like "huge intelligences" and "gods or ETs" are openly thrown around. But ultimately, when it comes to hard information (and fascinating topics such as the bystanders who claim to have seen crop formations being created), dilettantes drawn to crop-circle studies by M. Night Shyamalan's film Signs could actually learn more about the phenomenon from Crop Circles' press packet than from the film itself.