Testimonials
Letters written in support of original screenplay submission to Sundance Institute's Screenwriter Lab.
 
STEWART STERN first gained acclaim for writing the screen play REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, starring James Dean. His subsequent work includes THE RACK, THE UGLY AMERICAN, THE LAST MOVIE, TERESA, and RACHEL, RACHEL (Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay). He wrote the script for the 1951 Academy Award winning documentary, BENJY. Stern also received an Emmy for his teleplay, SYBIL.
 
GEORGE KUCHAR is a world renowned avant-garde film maker based in San Francisco where he is Professor of Film at The San Francisco Art Institute. In 1998, Lincoln Center in New York programmed a highly acclaimed retrospective of his work which included, THE NAKED AND THE NUDE and I WAS A TEENAGE RUMPOT. Film critic Roger Ebert referred to both George and his brother as, "living legends in the world of experimental film", and in the introduction to a book on Kuchar, the director John Waters called Kuchar's films, "the pivotal films of my youth".
 
STANLEY MOUSE, painter, designer, illustrator, forged the images of the most influential rock bands of the past three decades. He is the creator of the ubiquitous 60's rock poster, which has been at the foundation of artistic imagery in pop music ever since. He's made countless album covers and concert posters for The Grateful Dead, as well as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller, Van Morrison, Bo Diddley and The Foo Fighters.
 
JELLO BIAFRA was the influential figurehead of the seminal 1970's/80's Punk Rock music movement. Beginning as front man for the band, The Dead Kennedys, his political activities led him to candidacy in the 1979 San Francisco Mayoral Race. Biafra continues to create vital musical projects and spoken word events while simultaneously running the premier independent record label, ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES.
 

Press Quotes

Words may not do this film justice - Film Threat

Nothing short of phenomenal! - New York Times

A tale that evokes Brecht, Beckett, and Ed Wood - New York Times

Part western, part musical, part Kubrick, part Godard, very strange and very free - Newsday

Has all the makings of a cult classic - Details

Arguably one of the most original American films of the past twenty years -- Boxoffice Magazine

Inventive! Plays like a dreamy fusion of David Lynch's Eraserhead and Sam Shepard's The Tooth of Crime. -- Chicago Tribune

The film is filled with psychotic Astaire-style musical sequences, Three Stooges-esque humor, slimy nightmare imagery, and hilarious Flash Gordon-inspired space scenes. - The New Yorker

Something virtually unique in American independent film - Filmmaker Magazine

Imagine a long Laurel & Hardy skit directed by Salvador Dali - Entertainment Weekly

Homegrown American surrealism. - LA Weekly

A true independent -- Los Angeles Times

Brings forth new ideas to the world of film - eFilmCritic

An astonishing joy ride through the outer reaches of the id - Washington Post

A beautifully crafted black and white fairy tale with a decidedly John Ford feel. --IFC Rant

Do I go as far as to call this brilliant? Yes, I think I do - Digitally Obsessed

The only thing you can truly be sure of by the end of Cory McAbee's retro-chic futuristic space western-film noir-rock opera is that knowledge is worthless. -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

May be the most wonderfully strange film experience you have this year - Elle Magazine

Both irreverent and emotive; at once laugh-out-loud funny and also quietly disturbing - Sci-Fi London

An unforgettable, irresistible stylistic hybrid that's part space opera, part western, part noir thriller and all hyperintelligent comedy - Orlando Weekly

Surreal, gritty and nutso all at once. - Hollywood Reporter

It is a film in equal measure funny, strange, dark and beautiful. - Leeds Guide (UK)

The whole movie, including the music, is infused with an odd mix of working-class sensibilities and intellectual irony. - Movie Habit

One of the most novel, outrageous and magnificent movies ever made - DVD Talk

...juvenilia elevated to critical theory and high art, heady and delirious with passion and the freedom to stretch - Film Freak Central

A cross between Eraserhead and Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang - Movie Magazine International

extraordinary in its humility, exuberance, and eccentricity... it is also a graceful and entertaining film -- CinEncanto

...as reminiscent of Fritz Lang silents as of Flash Gordon serials - San Francisco Chronicle

...hugely imaginative, genuinely weird -- San Francisco Examiner

Not to be missed, The American Astronaut is like eating a Rice Krispies treat laced with a hallucinogenic - Sundance Film Festival

...arch and serenely ridiculous - Village Voice

Equal parts Douglas Adams and Ansel Adams - TV Guide

It's quite unlike anything else - New York Post

 

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