The American Astronaut (35mm)

25th Anniversary of the Sundance-destroying Cult Classic

“Emphatically perverse, a salute to the Midnight Movie, a cultural land mass that spawned John Waters and David Lynch.” – Elvis Mitchell, NY Times.

Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis. Written, directed, and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi, musical-western uses flinty black and white photography, rugged Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier. We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by an enigmatic killer, Professor Hess. The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock n’ roll scenes ever committed to film.

Director: Cory McAbee. Writer: Cory McAbee. Cinematographer: W. Mott Hupfel III. Music by The Billy Nayer Show  Starring: Cory McAbee, Rocco Sisto, Gregory Russell Cook, Annie Golden & James Ransone.

“This musical epic is unlike anything I (or anyone I know) have ever laid eyes on.” – Film Threat.

“A sui generis, love-it-or-hate-it exercise in homegrown American surrealism.” – LA Weekly.

“Movies don’t get much more homemade or endearingly eccentric.” – Dallas Morning News.

“It’s a terrifically enjoyable piece of filmmaking that demands that you laugh while your jaw drops …Evocative of the disconcerting hybrid of musicals & crime fiction in Dennis Potter’s “Pennies From Heaven“… it has moments of inspired dementia…. Emphatically perverse, a salute to the Midnight Movie, a cultural land mass that spawned John Waters and David Lynch.” – Elvis Mitchell, NY Times.