WTF?

WTF indeed! We stand for Films, Tunes, and Whatever else we feel like (not necessarily in order!) Professor Nonsense heads the 'Whatever' department, posting ramblings ranging from the decrepit, to the offbeat, to the just plain absurd! The mysterious Randor takes helm of the 'Tunes' front, detailing the various melodic messages he gets in earfuls. Weekly recommendations and various musings follow his shadows. Finally, our veteran movie critic, Lt Archie Hicox, commands the 'Film' battlefield, giving war-weathered reviews on flicks the way he sees them. Through the eyes of a well-versed renegade, he stands down for no man! Together we are (W)hatever(T)unes(F)ilms!

Feel free to comment with your ideas, qualms, and responses, or e-mail them to RandorWTF@Hotmail.com!

Apr 19, 2012

MOTM: "The American Astronaut" (2001)


Try to dissect the following phrase:

He's a birthday boy. He kills without reason. If he has no reason to kill you, then he can kill you. But if he has a reason to kill you, then he's got a problem. Because if he kills you without resolving that problem, then you'd be dead, and the problem would live on forever, unresolved.”

It sounds odd but that’s the kind of person who is hunting Samuel Curtis, the so-called “American Astronaut”. And that is the world in which he lives. He’s an interplanetary trader carousing the dives and blue-collar corrals of deep space. And his most recent job? Deliver the “Boy Who Saw a Woman’s Breast” at the behest of his smuggler buddy, the Blueberry Pirate, to a planet of women in exchange for the body of the former monarch of Venus.

Thus is a descriptor of the only science-fiction western musical you will probably ever see. Sounds kind of like a deadpan version of “Spaceballs”, right?

Though much of the movie doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, writer/director/producer/actor/musician Cory McAbee remains so utterly faithful to his unwavering blend of absurdity and verve that it’s like trying to boo that crazy person off-stage at open-mic night---in the end, you know it’s just going to make him try that much harder.

With a cast of character actors like James Ransone and Tom Aldredge who look like they just stepped out of a West Virginia coal mine and a shoestring soundtrack by McAbee’s own band, the Billy Nayer Show, “The American Astronaut” is definitely worth checking out at least once if you’re a fan of rock operas.

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