Erik Jimenez/Staff Writer
“First Man” is the best film of the year so far.
Damien Chazelle, the Academy Award winning director of “La La Land,” reunites with Ryan Gosling to deliver an emotional and inspiring biopic about Neil Armstrong, the “First Man” to step foot on the moon, that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
In one of the most technically crafted and detailed examples of the NASA space program, Chazelle and Academy Award winning writer Josh Singer tell of Armstrong’s personal struggles throughout the 1960s, leading to the closest retelling of the Apollo 11 mission on screen.
In those struggles, Gosling gives the best performance of his career, portraying Armstrong as a quiet, untalkative, but loyally fierce individual who prefers to have his actions speak louder than his words. His serious demeanor is understandable, as the movie begins with Armstrong grieving the death of his 2-year old daughter due to a brain tumor. It’s an emotional turmoil rolling in the back of his mind throughout the entire film, and in effect, a whole decade.
The other actors in the film lend solid performances too. “The Crown’s” Claire Foy plays Neil’s wife Janet, and though her role is the emotionally supportive wife archetype, she plays it with so much class she deserves an Oscar nomination alongside Gosling. Her role also depicts how the families of astronauts felt and probably still feel whenever their loved ones go up into space.
This is shown midway through the film when Neil experiences trouble on the Gemini 8 mission. NASA cuts communications with the personal radios given family members to listen in on the chatter, so as not to disturb them in case something goes wrong. Janet goes up to the base and tells those in Mission Control and the audience how dangerous these missions are. “You use all these fancy words and devices to make it sounds like you have everything under control, when in actuality you’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood! You don’t have anything under control!”
She’s right. These missions are dangerous. Numerous times throughout the film, Chazelle shows how quickly things can go south. And even if you know the outcome of these events, Chazelle and the editors make the audience question their knowledge of space exploration history.
Other major actors that appear in the film are Corey Stoll, Pablo Schreiber, Jason Clarke and Kyle Chandler. All are excellent actors who do their fair share of the heavy lifting for the roles they play. Other standouts include the music by frequent Chazelle collaborator Justin Hurwitz, which deserves an Academy Award Win for Best Score on its own. The visuals and cinematography also come into full force in the final half hour of the picture with the sequence on the moon. Chazelle filmed this section with IMAX cameras, and even on an average screen it’s impressive. But IMAX is the true way to see the picture, so seek it out.
Oscar season is beginning to heat up, and “First Man” deserves all the awards it gets.
Photo courtesy of Unification France on Flickr.
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