(McAbee / US / 2001 / B/W / 91 mins / 35mm / cert 15)
(Thurs 30th June (+ friday midnite movie!)/ 10pm / £4/3)

The Cube welcomes back the wacked-out talent and charm of writer/director/ musician/actor Cory McAbee in this his first feature. It follows the exploits of greasy, laconic interplanetary trader Samuel Curtis, who travels through space exchanging various human cargoes between sex-starved, single-gendered Jupiter, and Venus. We are introduced to this juicy scheme through the conversational interludes of Professor Heiss, a wildly eccentric and unstable scientist- and too late you realise that you made friends with the wrong kid on the first day of camp.

ASTRONAUT is filled with psychotic song and dance sequences, and off the wall characters such as 'Boy Who Once Saw A Womans Breast'. Billed as a 'surreal sci-fi midnight musical', it features the sounds of the bizzaro underground band THE BILLY NAYER SHOW (playing before the movie you lucky puppies!). There is great use of shadow in the flinty black-and-white photography, plus zero-budget sets and the spirit of the final frontier. This independent effort crashlands somewhere between FLASH GORDON and TWIN PEAKS. Do not miss this rare opportunity to catch this wonderfully original feature.