The Flaming Lips

Christmas on Mars (Warner Bros.)

Christmas on Mars is for Flaming Lips disciples what Chinese Democracy was for Guns n’ Roses fans, though only half as long in the making. Luckily for Wayne Coyne and company, their fearlessly freaky followers are more indulgent. The lo-fi space odyssey, which casts the Okies alongside friends and family, would have to ascend a few filmic strata before reaching B-movie quality, yet like the group’s music, there’s a philosophical and moral imperative behind the campy theatrics. Deserted on a dilapidating Mars outpost, the surviving colonists battle madness and extinction on Christmas Eve when a child is scheduled for birth at midnight. Into this den of depression and dementia drops Coyne’s mute Martian, a substitute for the suicided star of the colony’s Christmas pageant and salvation to the stranded star men. The allegory of civilization gone astray, and its ultimate rebirth and renewel, is dark, disturbing, and as heavy-handed as the stiff acting, but more disappointing is that the score, the CD component of the DVD package, sticks mostly to classic sci-fi sounds. Whereas the Lips’ music thrives on the tension of exuberance in the face of modern absurdity, their cinematic futurism doesn’t quite balance as well.

**

This article appears in December 26 • 2008.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.