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SPEND XMAS WITH THE FLAMING LIPS
CHRISTMAS ON MARS (NR) Had The Flaming
Lips' holiday space odd-yssey been released in
the 1970s during the height of the midnight
movie phenomenon, it surely would have
enjoyed a long, long run at the Elgin Theatre
on Eighth Avenue. In baked collectivity, hip
pies and cooler-than-thou patrons would have
watched the flickering images of Christmas,
space and female genitalia projected through
the smoky darkness.
Lips' frontman Wayne
Coyne, who spent seven
years writing, directing
and starring in what
he called "an elabo
rate, arty home movie"
doesn't try to hide his
innumerable influences.
Knowledgeable cineph-
iles will be reminded of
Stanley Kubrick, David
Lynch and Eraserhead,
John Carpenter's Dark
Star and certainly more.
In the psychologically
destabilizing solitude of space, Major Syrtis
(flaming Lip Steven Drozd) searches for his
Santa, Ed Fifteen (Coyne's brother Kenny), on
Christmas Eve. Scouring the colony populated
by weirdos—including the rest of The Flaming
Lips (Michael Ivins and Kliph Scurlock),
Coyne's wife J. Michelle Martin-Coyne, and the
familiar faces of "SNL' regular Fred Armisen
and Adam Goldberg of Academy Award winner
Saving Private Ryan—Syrtis runs into even
stranger beings like The Martian, a vagina
headed astronaut and a newborn baby. Trust
me, Christmas on Mars is one space oddity, and
it's not for children.
Like other movies made for late-night,
chemically enhanced viewing, Christmas on
Mars starts out interesting but loses steam as
an actual plot fails to develop. Official press
materials mention a failing oxygen generator
and gravity control pod
that need fixing as well
as the artificial birth of
a Christmas baby. Sure,
all of that stuff happens,
but the movie doesn't go
' out of its way to clarify
any of the pesky who's,
what's, why's O' how's.
The sensory experience
is more important. As
is, Christmas on Mars,
amateurishly acted by
The Flaming Lips' fam
ily, friends and crew, is
not a bad trip, yet the
apologistic caveat that it's awesome if you're
stoned won't cut it with most filmgoers. Fans
will surely be beside themselves with glee, and
anyone who enjoys a far-out film experience
won't leave disappointed. Christmas on Mors
will certainly vie for future midnight movie
revival, and that is the highest compliment
given a film of such curious inconsistency.
Drew Wheeler
Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd
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