The American Astronaut

A true original. I loved this film and the wild wonderful universe that McAbee was able to create on what must have been a $1.80 budget. It has a hypnotic quality, off beat characters, and even a touching father /son relationship.. what more could you want? There is a rousing scene at the beginning when the astronaut walks from his ship to the space bar. His walk goes for some time while a wonderful instrumental plays. If you don't enjoy this part for its simplicity, you probably won't like the rest of the flick. While it dosn't look like this film will get a major distributer ( I got to see it at the Washington DC Film fest with McAbee there to discuss it!) the soundtrack album is available at americanastronaut.com. I'm listening to it as I write this! This is the fist movie in a long time that I have seen that I didn't want it to end.. McAbee knows the first rule of showbusiness: Always leave them wanting more!

Went to an advance screening of this, figuring it would be something different. Instead I was confronted with a black & white outer-space "drama" full of 5th grade humor (lots of jokes about body parts & bathrooms), which made only sporadic sense, and in which characters broke into songs that sound like they were written to be intentionally annoying (like a song about a party, where the guy just keeps screaming "party" for most of it). What is the point? The film looks original, and has some original concepts, but they're sabotaged by the incredible inanity and (what seems intentional) incoherence of the script. EW said it was like a "Laurel & Hardy movie directed by Dali" but what it really is is a David Lynch movie directed by Tom Green. (saw at least 6-7 people walk out, too).

...and still do.

Sure, this is at least partially a vehicle for the music of the Billy Nayer Show, but so what? If that is all it is, it is still the best music video I've ever seen. But it is much more. You can read many other reviews about the genre combining efforts, but even beyond that, the genre it becomes is something that I believe has been dreamed of but never done before with this much success. While not stooping to the lowest common denominator, it does have something for everybody, if one is patient with its refusal to engage in conventional entertainment trappings. After sitting in a screening class for a student run film festival for two years in a row, and seeing the often failed attempts at surrealism, humor, post-modern poetics, and just basic storytelling from the many entries from around the world, I have to applaud the successes in all of the above here. I look forward to more works from this talented crew, and I also recommend their early works. You can get them on this nifty DVD I just bought, which you can get on their website (no, I am not a promotor for the movie or the band... otherwise this review would be even more glowing, and probably unbelievable). The two and a half minute animated musical simply titled "Billy Nayer" is possibly my favorite, but "the Ketchup and Mustard Man" is quite an accomplishment, and stylistically anticipates "American Astronaut," while "The Man on the Moon" could almost be its prequel.

Thanks for existing, McAbee and co. And hurry up with that DVD release of this movie!!

If you like the silly and/or absurd, see this film! It is definitely one of the most enjoyable things I have seen in quite a while.

Bon appetit.

P.S. If you can't suspend your disbelief and just have a good time with it, you will probably not like it.

'The American Astronaut' promises much more than it delivers, I'm sorry to say. It has all the hallmarks of a cult movie - comedy musical western with a rock score - but falls short of what it could have been.

Cory McAbee (director, writer, star), who doesn't come across as particularly interesting as himself - guesting at a screening of this recently - plays Curtis, the astronaut of the title who wins a dance contest on Ceres, gets given a job to do, and - well, it's downhill from there, really.

As Professor Heiss, Rocco Sisto comes across as very Ed Wood, moaning about everyone ignoring his birthday, reducing people in his wake to piles of sand. Greg Russell Cook is 'the boy who actually saw a woman's breasts', a bored cutie in a Greek God uniform; while Tom Aldredge is a bitter old man in the pub on Ceres who tells the long-winded, and rather silly 'hertz doughnut' joke.

The main premise of this messy film is to showcase the real-life band (made up from McAbee, the producer, and the Ceres house musicians) who wrote and perform the score. There's a lot of promise in the musical numbers - one performed in the men's room (now, that was funny); one performed in silhouette in a shed floating in space; one performed by 'the Boy' on stage; one performed by Professor Heiss after a murderous spree, one performed by fat dull Eddie the barman on Ceres, etc. etc.

The photography, when it isn't being 'look how low budget we are' (any of the shots with the space ship), is pretty good. The film appears in black and white and uses minimal sets and cheap costume to move its (limited) story along. But it could have been a lot more far-out and wacky. I came away feeling just a bit disappointed and felt that the film-makers themselves lost interest a fair way from the end. Pity.