The American Astronaut
Tags: absurd, cult, comedy, psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, thieves, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee), an astronaut from Earth who deals in rare goods, living or otherwise.
His mission begins with the unlikely delivery of a cat to a small outer-belt asteroid saloon where he meets his former dance partner, and renowned interplanetary fruit thief, the Blueberry Pirate (Joshua Taylor). As payment for his delivery of the cat, Curtis receives a homemade cloning device already in the process of creating a creature most rare in this space quadrant – a Real Live Girl.
At the suggestion of the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis takes the Real Live Girl to Jupiter where women have long been a mystery. There, he proposes a trade with the owner of Jupiter: the Real Live Girl clone for the Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast (Gregory Russell Cook). The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast is regarded as royalty on the all-male mining planet of Jupiter because of his unique and exotic contact with a woman. It is Curtis’ intention to take The Boy to Venus and trade him for the remains of Johnny R., a man who spent his lifetime serving as a human stud for the Southern belles of Venus, a planet populated only by women. Upon returning Johnny R’s body to his bereaved family on earth, Curtis will receive a handsome reward.
While hashing out the plan with the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis is spotted by his nemesis, Professor Hess (Rocco Sisto). Possessed by an enigmatic obsession with Curtis, Hess is capable of killing only without reason; that is, unless his intended victim is someone with whom he has unresolved issues. Hess has been pursuing Samuel Curtis throughout the solar system in order that he might forgive him, then kill him. Along the way, Hess has executed each and every individual to come into contact with Curtis.
Unaware of this danger, Curtis sets forth on his mission.
After retrieving The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast from Jupiter, Curtis is contacted by Professor Hess, who makes his intentions known.
Fearful, Curtis and The Boy look for a place to hide. They come across a primitive space station constructed by Nevada State silver miners from the late 1800s. Inside they discover a small group of miners still alive, their bodies crippled and deformed by space atrophy. Unable to return home for fear that Earth’s gravity would kill them, two of the miners mated and give birth to a boy known as Body Suit (James Ransone). He has been raised in a suit of hydraulics to simulate Earth's gravity with his parent's intention of him eventually being sent home. In trade for supplies and sanctuary, Curtis agrees to deliver Body Suit to Earth.
Once they land on the lush planet of Venus, the terrain dramatically changes, and Curtis is inspired by a plan.

Review: you'd have got something like The American Astronaut.Writer/actor/director/musician Cory McAbee's ultra-low-budget indie The American Astronaut is something that almost defies description.
This is, of course, helped by the occasional song and dance number, with music provided by the director's day job in his band The Billy Nayer Show.If McAbee has made any mistake, it's that this is almost too relentlessly and resiliently oddball.
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..
Probably one of the best films I have ever seen, this film is a strange science fiction tale about a man who arrives to a space bar, meets an old friend and embarks on a strange mission.
The commentary makes you love the film exponentially more if only because it's done in a unique way: Cory McAbee narrates at a live screening, taking questions from the audience.
Instead, the heart and mind of a true Renaissance man were revealed, imbuing the film (and the music) with new life (just when you thought you couldn't love a film more).
The American Astronaut proves to be both of these (and strange definitely in a good way, believe me).The story is centred around space trader Samuel Curtis (played by writer and director Cory McAbee), who we find in a bar on an asteroid belt, landing in order to make a deal.
Hess, a psychotic killer, pursues Curtis throughout his subsequent journey, in which he performs a number of deals, culminating in travelling to Venus to provide a suitable male to the women of Venus, in order that they release the body of their late suitor, Johnny R), and the dialogue between the two is one of the highlights of the film.This film is stylishly shot in black and white, and Cory McAbee manages to convey the idea of outer space extraordinarily well with some simple direction.
Shot on a low budget, this film does not suffer from the fact in any way.
McAbee's use of light and shadows is reminiscent of Orson Welles' direction in Citizen Kane - simple, but astonishingly effective.With a superb soundtrack from McAbee's band The Billy Nayer Show, and the script as impressive as the direction, the film's slightly abrupt ending is the only chink in this otherwise flawless masterpiece; although even that has an upside, in that it leaves you wishing to hear more of Samuel Curtis, and the others.Hopefully more from the same director will do..
The look is modeled after old Sci-Fi films like Flash Gordon.
I loved this film and the wild wonderful universe that McAbee was able to create on what must have been a $1.80 budget.
Cory McAbee not only wrote it and directs it, but also stars in it and co-wrote all the music which is performed by his band The Billy Nayer Show (don't know them?
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.
Entirely absurd, filled with a degree of joyous creativity that I would never have expected, this is the best film I've seen in years.
In fact, I had the same sensation of light-headed wonderment I felt the first time I saw "True Stories," making this literally the best movie I've seen in at least a decade.In terms of comparisons, think of this as the light-hearted kid brother of "True Stories" or the farcical, silly, prankster cousin of "Twin Peaks.".
Independent film that combines the old style of both science fiction and western movies.
I saw this movie originally as part of the Southern Film Circuit Series in the Fall of 2003, I was instantly amazed by the entire film, but unfortunately because I had to view at a separate time from the viewing at the theater I did not get a chance to talk with the filmmaker who made it, which I now incredibly regret.
The movie is odd, which I love, so if you are looking for a regular run of the mill film, this is most definitely not it.
This is the best semi-gay, black and white, sci-fi, indy musical I've ever partially seen.
The American Astronaut, his 2001 feature film couldn't be more original.
I had seen Billy Nayer before watching this film, so I was prepared to see a film with a firm foothold in the music video world.
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).
The budget is low but it doesn't seem like the filmmakers sweated it - they spent the money on production design and great costumes rather than trying to do convincing spaceships-flying-through-asteroids shots.
I mean, I definitely feel like I got my money's worth but after sitting through an amazingly creative patchwork of sci-fi serial/western/off-off-Broadway musical you'd think they could have summed it up with one more setpiece.
the Musical": an all-male cast with a song in its heart on a mission in the far reaches of the known world; both films have homoerotic-ish moments/themes.
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.
This is what I love about movie services like IMDb and the flix unearthing gems that'd otherwise go undiscovered.American Astronaut is as indie as indie gets.
The word quirky comes to mind black and white with a lot of shadows reminded me of early Jarmusch (only played at 5 fold the speed) and with characters busting out into song and dance unexpectedly (loved the bathroom "hit" scene).
I don't usually care for musicals (this is a long way away from that genre) but the Tom Waitsish (only you can understand the lyrics) soundtrack was awesome and led us to another cool discovery We Googled "The Billy Nayer Show" and fell in love with their music and now have some great new CD's to listen to..
American Astronaut is the first feature length film written and directed by Cory McAbee and stocked with music from the band The Billy Nayer Show (BNS), of which McAbee is the frontman.
BNS production's first feature length film fits the band's music to a "T" and it should, as the band's unique music fills the movie.American Astronaut defies convention so often, you can be sure the person sitting next to you won't lean over and say, "I knew that was going to happen." For example, en route to Venus, our hero receives a call from his nemesis, Professor Hess.
The bad part is, the plot that was present merely as a vehicle for the films strengths, just like the plot in porn movies is a line to connect the sex scenes.
To me, the story was a weak link in an otherwise strong chain.Still, if asked, I'd say American Astronaut isn't for everyone but should be seen because it's tenaciously original and parts expose genius I hope we see more of in the future..
If you saw this movie and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on then you weren't thinking hard enough, this is a hilarious, hip, comedy about a cowboy that takes place in space, and it rules..
Come on guys, a skilled movie maker might be able to get away with black and white film, or cheesy special effects, but there has to be *something* of redeeming value in the production to make it worthwhile!The movie didn't really come to a conclusion; rather, after the longest ninety minutes of my life, it sort of ground to a halt, having said nothing, gone nowhere, and left me with no memorable emotions other than boredom and wonder that it could have ever made it into any theater, even an art theater.I suspect that the movie merely exists as a vehicle to show off the music of some San Francisco band.
And unfortunately for me, I didn't like the music, so that left absolutely nothing of value to show for my time expended.My primary regret is that the local newspaper movie critic didn't give me fair warning, but I also regret not simply getting up and leaving early on (I was with friends and I was afraid that one of them might actually be seeing something of value in the mess since they seemed to be paying attention -- but afterwards I learned that we were all as stupefied as me)..
If you're lucky perhaps one out of a hundred movies will change the way you look at film making - for me The American Astronaut was such a movie.
From the very first scene your already thinking "What the hell is this?" Now this question doesn't necessarily dictate that the viewer is enjoying themselves, but once that thought occurs it is undeniable that they have just stepped into a completely unique world.The only way for me to describe what this movie is like is to say: it is as if the director Cory McAbee - hell bent on making a stew that had never been tasted before - went into his kitchen - went through his cupboard pulled out a cup of musical honey for an unexpected sweetness, some robust western beef, a very carefully measured amount of comedic spices, a thick film noiry broth and put them all together in a pot.
Not everyone will like this stew - while your eating it you may find that one moment you absolutely love it and nothing before or after has or will taste as good, then you take another spoon full and you wish you'd never started eating in the first place, but when you take yet another you can't imagine what it was you disliked.I for one loved the movie - It was the dancing cowboy in the beginning that got me.
That image really hammered down what this movie was going to be - and that is: exactly what you don't expect it to be.As for direction - I absolutely loved the way it was shot.
David Lynch meets Fellinni and Salvador Dali in a bar and they form a rockabilly band, and that band then decides to do a musical western comedy as a small noir Indy film.That's the pitch - if this movie was ever even remotely "pitchable".I just saw it and was completely blown away.
I was indeed very impressed, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys film.The soundtrack is also upwards of keen, it being a musical and all.
Plus, who wants to be the whiny art-house boy who only thinks a movie is good if no one else has never seen it?
The American Astronaut is a bizarre little film that worked perfectly for me, and I hope that a lot of people will go see it, not just because I liked it, but because I want to encourage other people to make movies like it.
One of the premises of the film is that there are no women in space (except on Venus, where they can breed without men and only one man is allowed to live there), and without openly commenting on this at all certain scenes make rather biting comments about gender roles.
But the film isn't about biting comments, it's about having a great time at the movies with an new and imaginative story.
It doesn't matter, because in this movie, as is usually the case in life itself, the destination isn't as important as the journey.This ingenious black and white musical gem restored my waning faith in independent film.
Okay, okay, there's an element of that here too, but the setting and the execution make it fresh and diverting.) Writer/Director McAbee populates the film with unique and interesting characters, and he doesn't care if they are really relevant to the resolution of the story.
Not everything works completely, but I found myself either laughing, or with a goofy smile on my face throughout.I can't help but think that had this film been released in a more adventuresome cinematic time like the mid-80s, this film would have been a massive cult hit and McAbee would be hailed as the next David Lynch or Jim Jarmusch.
Maybe this sounds like an ad for the movie theater, but I find such a setting perfect for how I would categorize American Astronaut: as a couch swallowing, camp/cult SCI FI flik.With its punkish music, it is a caricature of solar system space travel reminding me of Rocky Horror; but yes, it had the disconcert of Eraserhead.
I looked up kitsch and must say that there is nothing kitsch about American Astronaut, especially the low budget spaceship because we really don't yet inhabit the solar system and glossy Star Trek space boats are extreme imitations of truth while even an Einstein cho cho train elaboration is more relativistic to our Earth...or at least way REALer than than captialistic star boat Enterprise.Ultimately, it all felt gay no matter which way you look at it..."Not because he wants to wear it, but because he gets to wear it." It's one of our pseudo hero's funniest lines as I remember it from the movie.
I thought about its unique style and the many challenges of producing a low-budget film (I should know).
To me it was like watching Eraserhead in Outer Space -- and that's a good thing!
If you love independent film and are not quite sure about this one, watch the Director's Commentary on the DVD and then give the movie a second chance.
Very low budget, music plays a big part, and it has a very consistent visual style: old school black and white space movie.
People call it a spoof, but it's not, not in the way that a high dollar spoof comedy uses intentionally bad special effects to make fun of old movies for a laugh, like Amazon Women on the Moon did.
They're there to create the dark and lonely drifter feel of the story, and also probably because the film did have a very low budget.The closest movie I can think of to compare it to would be Six String Samurai.
There are musical scenes with an original score, and a bit of action, but mostly just the entertainment of seeing how the whole 1930's space thing works..
In a just world, this film would have the cult status of (the far inferior) 'Rocky Horror.' (This bit of information has been left out of the synopsis, but those interested in the film should know that, like 'Rocky Horror,' 'American Astronaut' is a musical...
The music is original and (unlike 'Rocky's') good, the acting is often great, the sets and costumes do wonders with a small budget, and while I see what the writer of the synopsis meant about the film not having a strong plot in the traditional sense, it does, in fact, have a plot and a shape that is sensible and aesthetically satisfying.
brilliant black and white, no-budget, space western musical.
I don't like musicals and I'm not a huge fan of space movies but I loved this film.
This black and white, no-budget, space western musical is quirky and full of humor.
The music, though beyond any description I can think of, comes from the talented Billy Nayer Show (who made the film as well).
What more could you want than a low budget perfectly executed black and white sci fi musical comedy.
Space travel, traditional western film styling of good guy v.
Filmed in gloriously crisp b/w and set i steam/punk/western space, American Astronaut not only boasts a terrific soundtrack by the Billy Nayer Show but a well written script (sick in a good way) and some great acting.
The stellar dialogue, inventive costuming and sets, gorgeous black and white cinematography and terrific acting make for one of the most original and creative films I've seen in a long time.
Surely the only ways in which this film resembles 'Eraserhead' are that it's low-budget and shot in B&W.There is no content or depth in this film, it is just a long set of scenes loosely strung together, held together by one running joke.