Before I say anything about the "Cosmonaut," I should post a serious disclaimer here: One of my very closest friends, Max Wrottesley, plays one of the three leads in this film, so I can't pretend to be purely objective here.
In fact, I came to this movie with some trepidation. This is one of the first cinematic products of real crowd-funding (as the publicity notes, "A film made by more than 5000 people") and I was concerned that this might be a case of the film's back-story, production history and good creative intentions being more interesting than the final product, especially as this is a first feature for Director Nicolas Alcala. But while "The Cosmonaut" does have its flaws, it's certainly more than the sum of its parts, and some of those parts are very lovely indeed.
This is a beautiful film. Luis Enrique Carrion's cinematography is first-rate, with gorgeous lighting, an appropriately subdued color palette and some breath-taking compositions. "The Cosmonaut" is shot in true 1:2.33 widescreen and that is the perfect choice for this film, as it helps sell the scope of this story and shows both the isolation and shared intimacy the protagonist experience.
Alcala does a great job with resources that must have been a tiny fraction of what this film would have cost if made and funded traditionally. One really pleasant surprise for me was how lovely the CGI sequences look. These are used sparingly and appropriately and, along with the cinematography, give the story the sense of scale - and so the high dramatic stakes - it needs to succeed.
Not only does this film look great, it sounds wonderful too. The score is lush and beautiful (with a haunting final song playing over the end credits) and the excellent sound design builds the feel of an entire world around the sparse but appropriate details we see in frame.
Performances are excellent all round, once one gets used to the fact that these particular Soviets do sound very English. "The Cosmonaut" is in large part the story of a love triangle with two men, Andrei and Staz, in love with one woman, Yulia (ethereal beauty Katrine De Candole). This relational triangle is greatly enriched by the fact that the two men also truly love each other - as friends, I should add (what same-sex kissing there is here feels culturally realistic as for Russian heterosexuals, rather than homoerotic).
There's a wonderful scene early in the film, in which Andrei and Staz compete to see who will go after Yulia by seeing who can keep their hand in an ice cooler longer, and both the writing and the performances completely sold me on the rivalry and friendship that connects these two men.
The one real criticism I have of the film is somewhat intangible but still key to the emotional impact it's left me with: "The Cosmonaut" really does feel like a young man's first movie.
Alcala wears his influences on his sleeve, a dash of Malick here, a heaping helping of Tarkovsky there, with a pinch or two of Kieslowski. Studying the best is always a good thing and Alcala's imagery is often lyrical. But as the old saying goes "A good artist borrows, but a great artist steals" and it does feel to me like there is a little too much borrowing and not enough stealing.
Alcala's writing and directing don't have quite the emotional depth and maturity of the filmmakers he obviously admires. I often felt that the Director was trying to imagine what the characters would feel in each situation, rather than really knowing it from lived experience.
But, even if Alcala's work here doesn't run quite deep enough under its gorgeous surfaces, this is still a skilled and highly imaginative debut and I look forward to seeing how this Director's future work grows.
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