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“Endearingly ragged…destined for cult status…abetted with homemade-looking but sometimes lyrical effects.”
- Andy Webster, New York Times“Christmas on Mars is great, if only you could understand it…a psychedelic accomplishment that will inevitably gain more favor as it ages…Twilight Zone poetry.”
- Metro Boston“a moody, somewhat demented trip, albeit one with amateur actors and giant genitalia in astronaut suits.”
- Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times“It’s basically as weird as you’d hoped.”
- Isaac Butler, New York Magazine“this mostly black-and-white, dreamlike yuletide fable does possess its own dorky DIY charm, as space-suited men wander around narrow enclosures in various stages of dissociation, Santas commit airlock suicide, and a nurse/mother in a giant lightbulb births a bubble baby.”
- Variety
Legendary rock band the Flaming Lips present Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips, a glorious science fiction film that marks the directorial debut of the Lips’ visionary frontman Wayne Coyne. Seven years in the making, Christmas on Mars features original music by the Flaming Lips (“The greatest U.S. band today” – The Guardian), with acting performances by all band members, and many others from their Oklahoma City-based team. Comedian Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) and actor Adam Goldberg (Dazed and Confused, Two Days in Paris) also appear, as does performer Steve Burns of the band Steve Burns and the Struggle (who had also appeared in children’s television show Blue’s Clues). Bradley Beesley and George Salisbury co-directed the movie with Mr. Coyne.
It’s Christmastime, and the colonization of Mars is underway. However, when an oxygen generator and a gravity control pod malfunction, Major Syrtis (the Lips’ Steven Drozd) and his team (including the Lips’ Michael Ivins) fear the worst. Syrtis also hallucinates about the birth of a baby, and many other strange things. Meanwhile, a compassionate alien superbeing (Coyne) arrives, inspiring and helping the isolated astronauts.
Des Moines, Iowa / Columbia, South Carolina / Moline, Illinois / Atlanta, Georgia / Peoria, Illinois / Naperville, Illinois / Nashville, Tennessee / Dallas, Texas / Whitewater, Wisconsin / Lake Geneva, Wisconsin / Orlando, Florida / West Bend, Wisconsin / Omaha, Nebraska / Providence, Rhode Island / Bremen, Indiana / San Francisco, California / St. Pete Beach, Florida / Cleveland, Ohio / Cambridge, Massachusetts / Los Angeles, California / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / New Orleans, Louisiana / Winnipeg, Manitoba / Ann Arbor, Michigan / Ithaca, New York / Columbus, Ohio / Denver, Colorado / Hot Springs, Arkansas / Santa Barbara, California / Purchase, New York / Minneapolis, Minnesota / Seattle, Washington / Hartford, Connecticut / Buffalo, New York / Kansas City, Missouri / Miami, Florida / Pontiac, Michigan / Chicago, Illinois / Bellingham, Washington / Chico, California / Spartanburg, South Carolina / Missoula, Montana / Urbana-Champaign, Illinois / Athens, Georgia / Boulder, Colorado / Tucson, Arizona / Houston, Texas / Asheville, North Carolina / St Louis, Missouri / Roanoke, Virginia / Brooklyn, New York / Albuquerque, New Mexico / Phoenix, Arizona / Paducah, Kentucky / Portland, Oregon / Tulsa, Oklahoma / Portland, Maine / Jacksonville, Florida / Austin, Texs / San Antonio, Texas / Madison, Wisconsin / Lexington, Kentucky / Grand Rapids, Michigan / Waterville, Maine / Northfield, Minnesota / Chicago, Illinois / Ithaca, New York / London, England / Monticello, New York / Santa Fe, New Mexico / Luton, UK / Springfield, Missouri / Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK / Atlanta, Georgia / Fort Collins, Colorado / Cardiff, Wales / Bern, Switzerland / Tempe, Arizona
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips. Directed by Wayne Coyne; with Bradley Beesley and George Salisbury. Written by Wayne Coyne. Starring Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne, and Michael Ivins, with Kliph Scurlock, J. Michelle Martin-Coyne, Steve Burns, Fred Armisen, Adam Goldberg, Scott Booker. Produced by Scott Booker, the Flaming Lips, and Warner Brothers Records. Cinematography by Bradley Beesley. Edited by George Salisbury. Original music by the Flaming Lips. 85 mins. Black and white, with some sequences in color. Released by Cinema Purgatorio and Warner Brothers Records.
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