First Man

Year: 2018
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Ciaran Hinds, Olivia Hamilton, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Lukas Haas, Corey Stoll


Plot: Based on the true story of Neil Armstrong's life and how he became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20th, 1969.


Review: Watching First Man reminded me of Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which was also about space exploration by NASA's finest. While Howard's film is a nice little thriller with dramatic sequences, First Man is a personal look into the life of the great Neil Armstrong, right up to the greatest moment in mankind's history.

Director Damien Chazelle reportedly took great care into depicting the man and his life as accurately as possible, and from what I gather here, Neil is mostly a quiet man, extremely humble and rarely shows emotion, save for one moment when he cries over his daughter's death due to cancer. Chazelle also succeeds in recreating all the important moments in Neil's career, from the breathtaking opening sequence where he flies an aircraft that bounces off the atmosphere, to being interviewed for the space program, training, making a partly successful mission to dock with another ship in orbit, losing several of his colleagues due to mishaps, right up to the iconic mission to the moon.

It's not just the emotion that Chazelle manages to capture, but the authenticity as well. He somehow manages to put the camera into the claustrophobia inducing cockpits so that the audience can feel what it's like to go right up there to space, or the likely feeling of it anyway. Some of the radio transmissions the audience hears were apparently the real ones taken from the actual mission. Needless to say, Chazelle deserves an A for effort.

Ryan Gosling is superb as the soft spoken Neil Armstrong, who'd rather let his skills speak for themselves than having to do interviews or rub shoulders with congress. Also equally great is Claire Foy as his wife Janet, who fears for his life constantly, knowing he could end up just like his fallen comrades. Lending some strong support are Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, Ciaran Hinds as the program director, Jason Clarke as fellow astronaut Ed White, Kyle Chandler as the mission director Deke Slayton and Pablo Schreiber as Jim Lovell, who will eventually end up on Apollo 13.

I did wonder why Buzz Aldrin was portrayed here as a bit of a jerk compared to his other colleagues. His relationship with Neil isn't explored fully, and I'm curious if there is anything to tell, or simply nothing. The last third of the film, when the Apollo 11 begins and completes its mission also felt rather anti-climactic, as if Chazelle had decided to cut back on details and keep the audience at arm's length unlike before that. In short, this part felt a bit rushed to me.

Nevertheless, First Man is a well made biography on Neil Armstrong, and will most likely be a frontrunner for next year's Oscars. I'd say it's worth checking out. (7.5/10)