Who can Universal Pictures call to say something new about the life of Neil Armstrong and his historic first steps on the Moon? How about Damien Chazelle, who pulled the Hollywood equivalent of a moonshot with his reboot of the classic musical in La La Land—not to mention the equivalent of a self-sustaining Mars colony in making a drum-school movie that was actually good.
Sheesh. Quip so choice I just got whiplash. Ad astra per aspera.
I’ll bottom line it for you, since we’re all busy spacemen: With First Man, Chazelle has paid his initiation dues to the Society for Directors Who Can Do No Wrong (its president is Christopher Nolan; M. Night Shyamalan is not a member). An Armstrong biopic was undoubtedly a tough ask, and although it threatens to shortchange various facets of its prismatic story along the way, it’s really, really nicely done.
Two things.
First, man: See this in IMAX, or the biggest, baddest, loudest format you can. You’ll thank me. Not just for the sounds, but for the silence.
Second, the raw, metal immediacy of First Man grips you right from Fade In. This is not some broad-field whitewash of heroic arcs and shiny spaceships gleaming from afar. This is deafening and close-in. This is cool-eyed dudes strapped lung-crunch-tight into hand-riveted, untested aircraft that buck and groan and hiss and throb at speed. It’s all G-forces and ugly latches and condensation and tiny thick windows with no view but The Future. And it’s the closest most of us will get to how it probably felt to roar into space in the sixties, and I say this as someone who has never flown to space (or to the sixties). I loved it.
Chazelle succeeds with First Man not just with this immersive authenticity, but also by deeply personalizing his protagonist’s story.
Ryan Gosling pushes all his chips in with his pensive, thoughtful Neil Armstrong, a man haunted by the past loss of a young child, but whose calm and quiet professionalism steadily plows his road to a moon trip that seems at times predestined.
The umbilical tower to Gosling’s rocket is Claire Foy, who has come a long way from her days in Season of the Witch (and, of course, The Crown) to play a nuanced and authentic Janet Armstrong. Her life isn’t all roses (or even much of a bouquet) but Foy cleverly resists temptation here and plays this right down the middle—as a real woman navigating a journey that at times is just as novel, cold, and lonely as her husband’s.
The deep supporting cast includes Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin. A further thought: Ethan Embry is apparently in this film but it looks like I’m going to need to watch it again because dude was straight unrecognizable to this Can’t Hardly Wait fan. Maybe he played a moon rock.
I’m no stranger to space-race films, but I still came out of First Man with refreshed appreciation for the Gemini and Apollo missions (Mercury, having been too early, doesn’t feature—nor need it, when you have Tom Wolfe). It’s truly amazing what these guys and NASA did.
With two music-themed films to his name, it’s unsurprising that the soundtrack is spectacular here—from period ditties to a bold cosmic vibrato (is that a theramin I hear?) that echoes fifties sci-fi and yet conjures emptiness, reverence, and reverie.
Chazelle focuses quite a lot the home front here, at the expense of some NASA stuff — but it all pays off in a dramatic arc that would honestly be a bit much in any other setting. Not here: I will not begrudge the first man to step on the grand lunar nothingscape a little denouemoon. (You’re welcome, blue marble.)
First Man clocks in at 2 hours 21 minutes, and I wanted another hour. There’s so much to show and see that even this heaped plate felt like a first pass of the buffet. As it is, it’s not only a worthy entry into a crowded canon but a truly fine film on any axis. We’ll be seeing it again come Oscar time.
Haus Verdict: Terrific. Immerse yourself in a technologically raw and deeply personal meditation on a slice of 20th century mythology–with theramin music!
First Man opens Friday, October 12.
Never miss a review — sign up for email updates to the right, follow us on Twitter, or like The Parsing Haus on Facebook!