There is a time in every person's life when we question our dreams and doubt our worth. An uncomfortable thing to contemplate, I admit, but it does happen to us at some point in our lives. We have a dream of building or accomplishing something, and as the years go by, you begin to say to yourself, "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this." You start to suspect that it's just not in your cards to accomplish what you are setting out for. Maybe it's time I gave up and moved on to something more conventional. But then, you watch a film like Cosmos, and you hear the filmmaker's story, and learn how and why this fun little movie was made, then you suddenly gain the inspiration to get right back to chasing your dream. Because Cosmos is a film that definitively proves that anyone can indeed make a movie. It just takes talent, time, and a good deal of drive. As an inspiration to aspiring filmmakers and artists out there, Cosmos is a must-watch. As a film on its own merits, it's also pretty damn good and might have been perfect, were it not for one problem, which I'll get to shortly.
The story follows three professional Astronomers taking a regular drive into the woods at night for a kind of astronomical hunting trip. Armed with a powerful telescope and radio scanning equipment, they search the stars for data, and hopefully, some anomalies. There is some noticeable friction amongst the group, as one of them seems to be stuck in a rut, to the point where he is considering quitting his regular outings. Things begin to shake up when they stumble upon a strange signal, which, upon further analysis, is being deliberately sent to them by something not found on Earth. Though they cannot say for sure just yet, they believe they have stumbled upon the means of establishing first-contact with extraterrestrial life. Now, they must do everything they can to confirm their discovery and make contact before the window of opportunity is lost.
The writers and directors of the film, brothers Eliot and Zander Weaver, began production for the film back in 2015. The story goes that they had spent years working in the industry as documentary and music video directors, and were desperate to make a narrative feature film together. They had a script titled Encounter, another sci-fi alien story, and presented it to financial investors. All of whom were concerned about their lack of experience in making a feature film and advised them to make a movie first. Which, given the fact that they were pitching a film in the first place, felt a bit redundant. Despite this strange and annoying roadblock, the two brothers decided to do exactly what was advised of them and set out to make a movie on their own. The wrote the script for Cosmos as a movie they could make with no money and with the equipment that was available to them at the time. With no budget and a handful of enthusiastic friends, they succeeded in making a film they could all be proud of.
For the most part, the film is a testament to the talent of The Zander Brothers and a remarkable piece of inspirational art. The cast does an exceptional job keeping your attention, the cinematography is gorgeous throughout, and the dialogue feels natural and engaging. In many ways, it reminds me of one of my favorite indie sci-fi films, Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth. A little to no budget production with talented actors delivering well-crafted dialogue taking place almost entirely in one location with an intriguing mystery to boot. All of this makes for a damn good movie that might have been perfect...were it not for one issue.
While the story alone makes the film worth watching, I fail to understand why the filmmakers felt it needed to take two hours to tell. While everything about the movie is otherwise engaging and fascinating to behold, it suffers just a bit from overstaying its welcome. Some scenes go on for a little too long, and some shots are repeated one too many times. This is a story that only requires, at most, an hour and a half to tell. I am convinced that the film would be absolutely perfect if it was just thirty minutes shorter.
Despite this issue with its runtime, it remains a well-crafted inspiration to all people, especially artists, struggling with their dreams. It's a movie that declares you can do anything if you just set your mind and your heart to it. While it may require a bit of patience, I encourage you to check out this film. At the time of this writing, it is available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Prime. Check it out.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you all for reading.
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