Nora (Nora Kaye) and Whitney (Whitney Uland) are lifelong friends, but they’ve grown apart. However, when Nora faces hardship, Whitney is quick to come to her rescue. The former band members, of a band called The Cosmos Sisters, now that they’ve found their way back to one another, must face the realities of life–but there’s a silver lining. The reality is that happy days may lie ahead of them, but the friends must bring them to life.
The Cosmos Sisters plays out something like a typical romantic comedy where drama creeps its way into the lives of the characters on screen in a strange, cringey, quasi-comedic fashion. The narrative isn’t so compelling–but The Cosmos Sisters differs from romantic comedies in one major way: the characters. Both Nora and Whitney are compelling characters, and they play with a series of different emotions and personalities throughout the course of the film. Viewers are able to appreciate these two characters from the start due to the fact that they are so honest, and they represent the people that we see in the real world. They are full of themselves, caring, honest, and everything in between–they are an everyman for everyone.
Again, the narrative isn’t so compelling–but it is sort of fun. Within the story the characters develop in just the right ways, and Kaye and Uland (also writers and directors) constantly present their characters in just the right light throughout. The Cosmos Sisters is, without a doubt, a unique telling of sisterhood and friendship–but again this duo constantly finds ways to reel in viewers with their characters, to paint them in a way that allows them to represent people in our own lives.
Helping to create that fun is the use of color and sound. Sometimes the vibrant colors present on screen exist in the form of a wig, and sometimes they are bigger than this, filling the entire screen. Regardless of the form that it takes on screen, however, it’s always a reminder of the good things that exist in our lives. However, like everything else, the color works to develop these characters as well. As I’ve said, there are many parts to the characters present in The Cosmos Sisters, and the use of color helps to determine which part is most prominent at any given moment. The soundtrack and the score work together to develop the most important parts of Nora and Whitney, proving that the purpose of this film is to fall in love with the main characters.
If you couldn’t tell, Whitney and Nora are the most important part of the entire film; they are the heart and soul of The Cosmos Sisters. Everything that occurs throughout the course of the film is to develop these characters, because without them at their best, I’m not sure that the film succeeds. I think that The Cosmos Sisters will be a hard sell for some viewers, because, at its core, it really is a romantic comedy. That alone will be enough to deter some potential viewers, but the fact that it studies these characters that represent the bulk of humankind allows it to widen its scope and reach more viewers than might typically tune in for a rom com. What The Cosmos Sisters boils down to is that Kaye and Uland are brilliant, and that they understand how to break the mold for films of this nature. Their character development is what sold the film to me, and it’s what ultimately finds the film success.
Written & Directed by Nora Kaye & Whitney Uland.
Starring Nora Kaye, Whitney Uland, Jake Swain, Madeline Grey DeFreece, Arielle Haller-Silverstone, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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