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(3 out of 5 stars)
It took seven years for rock band The Flaming Lips to bring to life "Christmas on Mars." Directed on a low budget by the band's singer/songwriter Martin Coyne, the somewhat experimental science-fiction film is an at times welcome departure from conventional storytelling in favor of the surreal.
"Christmas on Mars" is a film without any real discernible plot, and it uses an episodic structure to layer its ideas and themes. It takes place in a recent future where man has colonized Mars and follows Major Syrtis (Steven Drozd) around a Mars space colony on Christmas Eve. During the evening, an alien (Coyne) arrives and befriends him.
Existential, bizarre and philosophical are only a few of the adjectives that could even hope to begin to describe the film. As Syrtis meanders from crew member to eccentric crew member, the film looks into the breakdown of men left alone, removed from civilization.
The set was largely constructed in Coyne's backyard. Built out of spare parts, the dressed-down, sparse visuals give the film a homemade surrealism that builds atmosphere out of its inventiveness. The dark corners and flashing lights that pervade the set design suggest a world slightly out of reach, with everything slightly out of perfect view.
The most astonishing part of "Christmas on Mars" is how genuinely well-shot it is for an unprofessional work. The seven years of work show in the care of the lighting, the framing of the compositions and the assured editing of the sequences. Only rarely does the filmmaking feel sloppy or unfocused.
Occasionally, the film veers off its course into trippy moments punctuated by bursts of color and over-the-top visuals. These moments may please those who wish to find themselves thoroughly accosted by the bizarre, but the most they amount to are reference points to older avant-garde filmmakers. The shots are pretty to look at but feel largely out of place.
The band also wrote the score, which uses harsh, detached, techno vibes to illustrate the living space and existential quandary of the characters. The music alone breathes a considerable amount of life into the mostly black and white visuals.
The film strives for an experimental vibe, and once it hits its stride it rides it as hard as it can for most of its short, 80-minute runtime. It takes as a starting point the B-movie quality production values of an Ed Wood film and couples them with an emotionally unifying, almost artistic style of visual expression.
As an experiment and as a passion project for the band, "Christmas on Mars" deserves praise. As a standalone piece of filmmaking, it is creative if flawed.
"Christmas on Mars" wants to have a lot to say about the industry of the modern world. Though its themes may become convoluted in the middle only to sort themselves out by the end, it probably stands best as an indulgence piece for diehard fans of the band or for those who revel in cheap sci-fi.
Coyne with his co-directors Bradley Beesley and George Salisbury may not have the skill or experience to pull off everything they go for, but the kind of genuine passion and creative drive they show for their material is consistently admirable.
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