Space travel is incredibly difficult, but not as difficult as dealing with overcoming the human condition. This is something that Neil Armstrong must face in the film First Man. Chronicling the life of the first man to walk on the moon, as well as the space race with Russia, First Man is a technically accomplished, emotionally resonant film.
Much like Interstellar, Damien Chazelle manages to make space travel both incredibly awe inspiring and fear inducing. I was on the edge of my seat for many of the sequences and with Tom Cross’ editing prowess and the sound team, these scenes are technical marvels that also manage to keep the emotion and dialogue working in concert (something that Christopher Nolan routinely fails at).
Helping maintain that emotional core is a group of fine actors. I jokingly stated on Twitter that the movie is Ryan Gosling and a cavalcade of white male character actors that you like, and it truly is. Shea Wingham, Chris Abbot, Lukas Haas, Brian D’Arcy James, Jon Tenney, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Cory Michael Smith, and many more fill the space of the narrative and make sure to leave some semblance of an impact, even with limited screen time. Of the supporting group, Jason Clarke, Patrick Fugit, and Corey Stoll register the most. Stoll’s Buzz Aldrin is a particular prickly pear of a character that should generate some interesting conversations. Claire Foy is there to balance out the testosterone and her performance is a breath of fresh air, especially when paired with Gosling’s emotionally distant take on Neil Armstrong. Though she is given the normal stock role (wife of famous man) the movie does give her some more space to play and Foy takes advantage. Ryan Gosling also takes advantage of the material being given to him, managing to be his usual stoic self but giving us enough to not make the performance dull.
These good elements make the film a nice experience, but makes it all the more frustrating when First Man indulges some of its worst aspects. Damien Chazelle wants to nail the humanity of a tale but there are so many sequences of children playing that feel more akin to The Tree of Life than the movie about a man dealing with grief and trying to do the impossible.
The worst offender was Justin Hurwitz, whose score is among the most obtrusive movie scores I have ever heard. The score of a movie should enhance the picture, but the score for First Man is actively trying to upstage it, and at moments when the movie is at its highest level of filmmaking, the score comes in to drag it back down. It also struggles with genre, at points trying be Hans Zimmer levels of operatic and Mica Levi levels of atmospheric.
But luckily, we have the strong performances and sure direction to lift us out of the malaise. First Man is a wonderful film and deserves your attention.