I just love these competently done independent science fiction movies! This is a very difficult genre to pull off if you’re on a tight budget because you have to have special effects. However, if you’re creative enough and find the right story to tell, you can get away with having almost no budget. And this was the case Cosmos. If you’re looking for another movie like Cosmos I recommend you check out The Vast of the Night.
Created by two brothers Elliot and Zander Weaver, it’s like a budget version of The Arrival [1996]. Remember that crazy movie with Charlie Sheen when he works for SETI? It’s certainly not a 2016 Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic of the same name. After they honed their skills producing documentaries on the Apollo Program, our two brothers decided to make this movie without any budget. It’s a testament to the love and dedication of the entire small crew that worked on it for five fucking years. It is a slow movie, so if you’re looking for some fast-paced action better skip this one. However, once you get into the mood, you’ll be hooked. It sets the mood perfectly and it doesn’t deviate from it for one second.
Mike and Roy, former colleagues who worked together for years take Mike’s new colleague Harry out in the country to have some fun with telescopes. While Mike has a fancy, automatic telescope with a huge zoom to look at the sky, Harry uses radio signals to find stellar objects. Soon, the three of them stumble upon something really weird…
I was always interested in astronomy, telescopes and this movie just confirmed that I need to start stargazing. Too bad we polluted our cities so much that we have to drive for miles and miles to be able to just watch the fucking sky. Cosmos is not a movie just about stars and radio astronomy, but also about friendship, corporate world and life choices. It seamlessly blends all these subjects with great dialogue delivered by our three amateur actors. Their performances were really strong and added a level of authenticity that a movie of this caliber needed. I especially liked Arjun Singh Panam here with his subdued and yet engaging performance. This was especially important because Roy’s story is so engaging.
While there are other indie sci-fi movies like Skyline and Attack the Block, Cosmos reminded more of another phenomenal movie The Man from Earth. Although probably the best description would be a really slow episode of The Big Bang Theory. Without Penny. Now that we got that out of the way, it’s time to talk a bit about the negative aspects. Yes, the movie could have been shorter, a mistake that first-time directors often make trying to convey their vision to the viewer in all of its glory. This made it a bit boring at times, but this is nothing that a sci-fi lover couldn’t handle. As far as technical details go, I really don’t see a point arguing whether a car would start or how long the battery would really last.
It’s a fucking movie about, well, it’s a science fiction movie and reality went out of the window the moment you pressed play. I really didn’t care about these small details because the big picture was such a superbly painted one. You can clearly see that they were trying to generate some tension and move (actually move) the story forward. The way they went about it may be clumsy but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker. I, as a person who really likes his science details accurate, am willing to overlook this. Although the whole laptop deal did irritate me a bit. In the end, this is a fun little flick for ya stargazers out there. And all of us who would like to be. Enjoy.
Directors: Elliot Weaver, Zander Weaver
Writers: Elliot Weaver, Zander Weaver
Cast: Tom England, Joshua Ford, Arjun Singh Panam, Ben Vardy
Fun Facts: Amateur ground astronomers avoid white light at all costs because it ruins their eyes’ adaptation to the dark. Instead, they read, check charts, and move around the grounds with the aid of a red light, which does not make the eye’s iris close and, more importantly, does not affect the ability of the rods in the eye to be efficiently dark adapted.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477292/
