Cosmic Dawn

"Cosmic Dawn" is the type of movie you hope to run across when you are perusing the new releases. It's an engrossing and entertaining little film that almost defies categorization.

The movie starts with Aurora on a camping trip with her mother, where she sees her mother apparently abducted by aliens. We jump forward, and Aurora is now fully grown and with some serious issues, needless to say. A chance meeting in a book store with a woman named Natalie leads her to a group of like minded "UFO experience survivors" led by Elyse, who has written a book called "Cosmic Dawn." The movie then jumps four years later, and we spend the movie going back and forth between the timelines, showing us Aurora's experiences with what turns out to be a cult and what is happening four years later when it appears she is being haunted by her past...

"Cosmic Dawn" does just about everything right. It's got an appealing heroine that we are rooting for and a captivating, intelligent storyline that keeps your interest throughout, and it has an ending that pays off. Special effects are good, and not overused. The acting is uniformly excellent, with special kudos to Emmanuelle Chriqui and Joshua Burge as Aurora's closest friends in the cult and Antonia Zegers as the creepy -- but not too creepy -- leader. And model turned actress Camille Rowe is a minor revelation as Aurora, wonderfully straddling the line between belief and non-belief. (And on an aside, she was probably thrilled to get offered a role that doesn't depend on men drooling over her beauty). And "Cosmic Dawn" is the early favorite for "Best Scene in a Movie for 2022", when the leader of a UFO cult leads the cult members in singing Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft."

The movie deftly mixes science fiction, drama, religion, cults, and a small dash of horror into an absolute winner. All in all, "Cosmic Dawn" get an easy recommendation, definitely worth checking out.

This film left me bored and confused. I always have trouble with the reasoning behind aliens structuring cosmic-scale events around a 'chosen one' or a rather small group of individuals.

Many questions came to mind that were of course left unanswered. If I am expected to fill in this many blanks myself, I may as well have written the script myself. It probably would have had more coherency.

In my opinion, rental money wasted and invaluable time lost. Find something better to watch. It won't be hard to do.

I highly recommend this to anybody who enjoys slower paced, cerebral, emotional SciFi, and/or anyone who enjoys the cult genre. I happen to enjoy both, which is why I took a chance on it with such a low rating.

This is a compelling story following a girl who had an UFO experience in childhood. One that she has never been able to cope with properly. Her trauma makes her vulnerable to the influence of a cult later in life.

Most of this film bounces back and forth between a four year period when she reaches early adulthood. Although this sometimes feels confusing, because we are often introduced to characters in the present, when there is an obvious back story from the time frame set four years prior, it very effectively produces an air of mystery. Trust the the connections will be made in following scenes.

A SciFi fan who enjoys plots based mostly on scientific fact will be disappointed. This film focuses more on the "what ifs", or is it possible? It's deeply emotional and character driven, with the plot unfolding slowly.

I gave it a 9/10 to help offset some of the lower ratings. Realistically It's probably a 7.5/10.

I find the most helpful part of reviews, when undecided about investing my time in a low ranked film, is a comparison to other movies. If you enjoyed Brit Marlins "Sound of My Voice" or "The Endless", both of which also have cult themed SciFi, you will love this film. Obviously, I recommend both of those films if you enjoyed this one.

Some of the acting is not perfect, to be sure, but this movie is a small masterpiece, and it is already being, and will be, so recognized. Psy travellers will know that herein is to be seen on a screen some of the most real renditions of the unrenderable.

I kept hoping the ending was going to pay off in this slow moving movie. Nope, It cuts from scene to scene quickly, most flashbacks serve no purpose at all. In the end it just seems a Cosmic Yawn.