Cult weirdness draws to a close
The American Astronaut
It's about this astronaut, see.
No, strike that - he's a trader, an interplanetary trader who crashes from planet to planet in a rusty steam engine-cum-spaceship.He looks a little like Charlton Heston, and sports a smashing leather space suit. And he's on the run, pursued across the galaxy by a homicidal birthday boy who delights in turning perfect strangers to dust.
In a grimy bar on a little known asteroid, this astronaut/space trader runs into an old friend and former dance partner, the Blueberry Pirate, who sets him on a seemingly simple quest. Only it's not simple, see, and there are musical numbers.
Welcome to Cory McAbee's freakishly singular vision of the final frontier, where men live for the description of a woman's breast and women live quite happily without men; where the dramatic lighting of silent cinema collides with a Rocky Horror-like rock and roll appeal; where our hero is photographed while sitting on the toilet by a pair of malicious tap dancers and atrophied space settlers keep their kid fresh in a scuba suit. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.
Developed at the Sundance Writer's Lab and shot on spectacular 35mm black and white film, The American Astronaut is a work of mad genius, punctuated by dry wit and desolate absurdity.
The picture debuted at Sundance in 2001 and has since become a minor cult classic, elevating writer and director McAbee to punk celebrity status (building on his profile as lead singer of The Billy Nayer Show, a "New York based musical group of questionable genre," according to Wikipedia).
For almost two years, The American Astronaut has found its Australian home at ACMI, screening to a steady and devoted audience on Freaky Fridays, every couple of months or so.
We've had a great ride with this sci-fi western musical beast, but it is sadly coming to an end. There is just one screening left, on Friday 31 December at 9.30pm, and then its sayonara to McAbee, the birthday boy and the Blueberry Pirate, and all the other freaks and weirdos that populate their world.
Don't miss your chance to see this strange and wonderful film, up on the big screen where it belongs.
For more information see the American Astronaut page.
Published Wednesday, 29 December 2010
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