We all know the story; it's become a cultural watershed. The Cold War, the race for space, and the shining moments when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. A sort of nostalgia for an earlier America -- when, some might say, America was "great" -- when the sky was suddenly no longer the limit. The stories of real-life astronauts have been told so many times and in so many ways, from October Sky to Hidden Figures, and from Apollo 13 to, now, First Man.
It's a gorgeous film, shot mostly on 16mm and 35mm with practical effects. Claustrophobic in the best way, the movie keeps a tight focus on the man it takes as the hero, Neil Armstrong. Played by an excessively understated Ryan Gosling, the character acts as the movie's primary focus; very little spectacle is shown, and even moments that might ordinarily call for wide shots of the sky, space, the ships, or even the moon are restricted to his form, usually only his face or the reflections off his helmet. It's an interesting aesthetic for a movie that literally goes out of this world to stay so realistic, grounded, and gritty.
It's also an interesting choice to make the film such an intimate character study. Though it limits the scope of the film, I felt that it provides greater emotional payoff. We see the profound effects of this lifestyle on a single, iconic man; we see its toll on him personally as well as on his family, headed by a magnificent Claire Foy as his wife. And, though I found Gosling's performance nuanced and interesting, there's also nothing exciting or even memorable about it; perhaps that's because it's too small for the movie around it, though perhaps also because I found his character to be largely unlikable.
It's the technicality of the film that mesmerized me, and more than once I found myself dumbfounded while wondering how the hell some of the visuals were captured. Beyond that, too, is Damien Chazelle's clear labor of love here, dazzling and heartrending to behold. I only wish I cared more about the story or characters. I suspect this film might suffer a bit as a result of other, far more spectacular, space-adventure flicks in recent years -- thinking of Gravity and Interstellar -- which often favor spectacle and grandiosity in exploring metaphysics and even horror. It can be difficult to want to care about Ryan Gosling on the moon when every other superhero flick or sci-fi trip explodes with fantastic celestial imagery.
But, as a human drama and even, arguably, domestic thriller, First Man is a damn impressive exercise in craft.
IMDb: First Man
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