This is exactly the sort of movie you'd expect the Flaming Lips to make. Trippy, bizarre, overindulgent, ridiculous, but all the while very enjoyable to watch if you're a fan of experimental movies. The film tells a barely understandable (at first) story about a group of depressed, disillusioned colonists on Mars who rediscover their humanity with the help of a silent martian and a sort of "virgin birth." The movie is a kind of a roller-coaster ride--at some points, it's very interesting, artistic, and beautiful to watch. The opening scene is fascinatingly bizarre, and there are a number of interesting (but horrifying!) hallucinations involving various awful things happening to babies. There's also a fair amount of the sort of ponderous, philosophical dialog you'd expect in a Flaming Lips movie. BUT there are also some problems with the movie--sometimes it seems too abstract, to the point where you have no idea what's going on. At other points, dreary, repetitive, awkwardly written and poorly acted dialog scenes nearly drag the movie to a standstill. I still recommend it though, because it's an interesting artistic experience, a bizarre treat for fans of the band, and because it does seem to have some sort of ultimate message about humanity.
Review of Christmas on Mars
