Christmas on Mars (2008) review

When not touring and recording albums, singer-songwriter Wayne Coyne and the rest of his bandmates from psych-rock band the Flaming Lips assembled a (very loose) Christmas-themed sci-fi movie: on a space station on Mars, Major Syrtis (Steven Drozd) notices the crew members - and even himself - are starting to experience hallucinations and go mad, then an alien (Coyne) appears out of nowhere ... and did I mention there's a magical baby and astronauts with vaginas for faces?  Despite the film school-level acting and dialogue - as well as those long patches where nothing actually happens - it's certainly a "different" type of DIY project: Coyne apparently built the sets in his own backyard (where it was filmed), used run-down industrial locations in his native Oklahoma City (and Texas) and shot it mostly in black & white to pay homage to the older movies he's referencing.  Considering how outlandish their live performances are, this arguably could have been much weirder and more "trippy" - I watched it while drinking a glass of my homemade eggnog (a yearly tradition) and it wasn't enough, so using harder substances is strongly recommended (for those who indulge).