Movie Review: First Man

First Man

Director: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler, Pablo Schreiber, Corey Stoll, Jason Clarke, Ethan Embry, Christopher Abbott, Olivia Hamilton, Ciarán Hinds, Lukas Haas, Shea Whigham, Patrick Fugit, Cory Michael Smith, Brady Smith, Matthew Glave, Brian d’Arcy James

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 141 minutes

Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling, who both previously worked together on the Academy Award-winning La La Land, team up again in the dramatic biopic First Man. I’ll admit that I have seen neither La La Land nor Whiplash, so First Man is my first Chazelle film and I didn’t have the same expectations others might of the director going into the theater. However, being a big fan of both Gosling and Claire Foy, I was excited to see Chazelle’s take on the life of the first man on the moon.

First Man tells the story of Neil Armstrong starting in 1961 when Armstrong is just a civilian test pilot for NASA and going all the way until he’s back on Earth in quarantine. It’s important to note that while this movie does detail the entire NASA mission and we get to see a lot of different characters from the team, it is Armstrong’s story first and thus we follow Armstrong for most of the film. It’s also important to note that this is a very somber film with very quiet performances in general. While I’m not someone who needs larger-than-life characters to carry a movie, I do think that it’s hard to really appreciate Gosling’s interpretation of Armstrong when he plays the role in the same way he plays most of his dramatic roles: soft-spoken, rarely emoting, and lots of shots of Armstrong staring off into space (no pun intended).

In fact, because most of the characters are giving good but muted performances throughout the film, no one’s characters really resonated with me on an emotional level and I didn’t find myself caring too much about any of the character’s story arcs or motivations beyond a surface level. The only characters who give loud performances are Claire Foy, who does to her credit give the best performance of the film in my opinion as Janet Shearon (Armstrong’s first wife), and Cory Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon and according to this film’s depiction of him a Grade-A ass.

First Man really shines when it comes to the technical aspects like direction and cinematography. The entire movie looks and feels grounded, and while there isn’t a lot action in the movie the cinematography and score does an excellent job of capturing suspense and making each moment within the spacecraft feel like the audience is right there along with them. Not only the action scenes were shot well, however; there’s a great scene with Armstrong and his kids that’s filmed in an over-the-shoulder style I really loved. And I’m not sure if the moon scene was a set or green screen, but whatever they used was beautifully rendered in the film and made you almost believe they sent someone to the moon to film this movie. This is a movie where I’d say IMAX is almost necessary to fully appreciate all the work that when into making this film, and from a technical standpoint there aren’t a lot of movies this year that do a better job.

First Man is a movie that looks spectacular, has a great tone and explores themes of loss and death to great effect, but suffers from a lack of emotional attachment to many of the characters, primarily the lead, that unfortunately renders it boring a lot of the time. And with a runtime close to two-and-a-half hours, being boring isn’t a good thing at all. While I’m someone who typically loves Gosling in dramatic roles, he’s so successful in works of fiction because I can imagine him bringing these unreal characters into reality. Here, it just feels like Gosling going into space rather than a portrayal or Armstrong. And while Foy gives an excellent performance, it’s just not enough to make me care about any of the other characters besides her.