Review of Recommendation - First Man

The first movie I’m ever going to recommend online is a movie which is also incredibly divisive online. Based on over 8,000 reviews on review site Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of users give this a positive rating. Why do the other 33% hate it? Let’s find out, in what has to be the best biopic of the last 5 years, First Man.

First Man is a biopic about Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to ever walk on the Moon. Ryan Gosling is Neil Armstrong, followed by Claire Foy as his wife and other cast members including Jason Clarke and Corey Stoll. The movie is directed by La La Land’s Damien Chazelle (already used to heavily divisive films among audiences) and written by Spotlight’s Josh Singer, both of whom have Academy Awards, and who both should have won another for this transfixing film.

Director Damien Chazelle.

Rather than take the path of boisterous, heroic figure that provides a message and leaves the audience feeling warm and satisfied, First Man is bristlingly intimate, almost documentary style in its look at Neil Armstrong. He is not larger-than-life, but a reserved and quiet man with the simple goal of going to the Moon and dealing with his grief. It’s an unusual, but absorbing look at such a famous man, and Ryan Gosling delivers possibly his best performance as the introverted Armstrong.

Now, normally I hate movies with the “silent Ryan Gosling” trope such as Drive (which I’ll get to at some point in non-recommendations) and Blade Runner 2049, because they give him so little to do in terms of emotional depth and make his character seem bland. But in First Man, the silence actually has a reason beyond faux-coolness, and merely through his eyes and his face, Gosling conveys so much uncertainty, sadness and courage with only a few words.

Aside from Gosling, the standout member of the cast is Claire Foy as his wife, Janet Armstrong. Her performance is not one of posturing and emotion, but of authentic anger and love for her husband and children. Foy is so good in this movie, it’s surprising that she didn’t get more awards recognition in 2018.

The sheer technical skill in First Man is off the charts, with the seamless visual effects, amazing cinematography and incredible sound design providing both beautiful pathways of emotion and terrifying claustrophobia when the film goes into suspense mode. The scenes of terror in space, where Armstrong and his crew must fight to survive, are amazingly intense, lacking any sort of wide shots to give it the scope of a grand event, but rather shot in cramped close-ups to spike the audience’s terror. It’s filmmaking at its finest, and Chazelle should be commended.

This movie spends two minutes on the Moon, but it's so good it feels like it's gone out of the Milky Way.

But my favourite part of this movie, out of everything in it, is its ending. It’s a simple scene, with Armstrong sitting behind his quarantine glass while Janet sits on the other side, welling with tears of joy at her husband’s safety. Slowly, Armstrong presses his hand to the glass, an act of attempted connection unseen throughout the film, as he has found closure at last. It’s a simple act, but with tremendous emotional power. No pretension, no loud fanfare, no pre-credits still images with text saying, “Neil Armstrong moved to a farm in yadayada…”’. Just simple, human connection and emotion. I cried.

The only weak element I find with this movie is the musical score by Justin Hurwitz. It’s used very sparingly, meaning most of the scenes play without background music and only use sound design to really pump up the immersion. But in the scenes where the trumpets and the strings kick in, I felt myself pulling back out of the screen and into my chair again, reminded I was merely in a seat and not walking on the Moon. In isolation, it is good music, but not used in the best way.

So why is this movie so divisive online? Well, before its release, news broke that the film would not show the American Flag being planted on the Moon. Americans were, of course, outraged, interpreting it as a political comment against Donald Trump (he also commented on the situation, in the most predictable way possible) and downvoting it purely for saying things. Seeing the film, it’s understandable why the flag is not shown being planted; it’s a character study, not an America study. But the fact that it wasn’t about the charismatic symbol of hope we all imagined just left some people infuriated.

Thanks, random guy/girl on Rotten Tomatoes. You've perfectly summed up the backlash against this film. I respect exactly one, maybe two, of your three opinions (the middle one).

Anyway, I love this movie like caramel-flavoured chocolate. Go see it, forget about those spoilers I said, and experience a genius biopic that’s way, WAY better than Bohemian Rhapsody.