Release Date: Nov. 11
Director: Wayne Coyne, George Salisbury
Writer: Coyne
Cinematographer: Bradley Beesley
Starring: Steven Drozd, Steve Burns, Coyne
Label/Run Time: Warner Bros. Records, 82 mins.
Google query: pot brownie recipes or “stop worrying, trust Wayne”
“SMOKE POT,” the Lips’ title cards announce, listing recommended viewing activities. “HAVE SEX.” Despite these caveats, and its several stunted years in the making, Christmas on Mars is an extraordinarily real movie. If you disregard the heavy-handed acting and writing (which is like listening to music without the words), frontbeard Wayne Coyne’s intricate plot about the holidays at a doomed spacebase actually adds up. In fact, between the inspirationally DIY sets, abstract sound design and stylized humor, the Lips have built a personal cinematic language, from grunted syllables on up. “Cosmic reality, it’s a real motherfucker,” someone proclaims, summarizing the existential psychoses caused by living in space. This sentiment may also be summed up by the appearance of a (hopefully) hallucinatory vagina-headed marching band. If anything, there aren’t enough freak-outs.