First Man

I was interested to see how Damien Chazelle would handle a film that wasn't about the world of music, so I was caught off guard by how musical this film actually. I don't mean it's a musical, but music - and the broader soundscape, which often encompasses long stretches of relative silence - feels like it drives this film in terms of tone and pace. From a superb, politically-charged sequence scored to Gil Scott Heron's Whitey on the Moon to the sense of isolation created by Justin Hurwitz's eloquent use of the theremin, it's a film that has a propelling musical pulse, despite it all seeming to be a world (or, ahem, satellite) away from the material Chazelle has tackled before. And it properly gets the sounds of space travel too - whether that's the creaking of metal or the overwhelming absence of noise on the lunar surface.

It's one of the first films I've seen that seems to have been directly influenced by Christopher Nolan stylistically (which isn't to say it's derivative, because this has its own character). It's actually strange that that's the case, given how successful Nolan has been. But this has the same enthusiasm for cinematic form, and in crafting a proper big screen experience. And yet one or two well-judged exceptions aside, I think this largely foregoes traditional blockbuster spectacle in favour of something much more intimate. It's an uncomfortably confined film at times, very much determined to stay within the characters' space - which is often a very cramped space indeed! But thanks to the camera getting right up in there and hugely forceful editing / sound design the whole thing roars at the same time without ever devolving into a mess of SFX (indeed, even in the clearly enhanced scenes the illusion is almost always absolutely convincing).

That intimacy isn't just to save money or anything: it's also informed by the story being told. Ryan Gosling isn't the most expressive actor in the world, let's be honest - but this film uses that to its advantage. Neil Armstrong here is an elusive, insular figure - using the space programme as a way to fight through grief, even when the programme brings its own share of trauma. Gosling's performance is well contrasted with Claire Foy's, who plays his first wife as a force of nature unwilling to let her husband completely disappear into his own obsession. Whether any of this is super true-to-life I couldn't tell you - but it makes for some good old character-driven drama!

I tend to be rather cynical about biopics and historical dramas, and there are absolutely stretches in this that are fairly traditional, uninspiring fare. But Chazelle isn't content to let this just become a straightforward bit of historical hagiography, like many films before it - this boasts a considerable amount more flair than I for one was anticipating, which is always a welcome surprise.

IMDB ratings are to trustworthiness as America is to sensible political discourse - i.e. not very.

Also: you clearly see the flag. Anyone who gets offended that it’s not shown being planted is at best manufacturing fake outrage, and at worst is Marco Rubio. Frankly, if I was a raging republican, I’d be more concerned about the (excellent) sequence where it’s basically pointed out the whole space programme was a costly, arrogant propaganda exercise :pac:

Again: you clearly see the flag. Demanding a scene where it's overtly planted - as some have - is nothing more than empty jingoism.

Anyway, this isn't a film about the nationalistic glory of the American space programme. It's an intimate character study about one of the people involved in it.