First Man

Damien Chazelle cements his seat at the top table in stone with First Man and proves that he and Ryan Gosling are the movie industry’s current golden ticket.

Following on from the wild success of Whiplash and La La Land Chazelle dips into biopic waters with this unflinching portrait of a famous name without a famous story: Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.

Portraying the key years of his life throughout the sixties from his early days with NASA up to those fabled ‘small step for mankind’ words this is an honest and detailed depiction of a troubled, committed individual.

Ryan Gosling has a certain dour charm which is absolutely key here as he portrays Armstrong in low-key terms. He’s empathetic in his all-encompassing sadness and devotion to his mission and is never showy in his performance despite hogging every scene. Claire Foy is allowed more dynamism as wife Janet and award nom’s are bound to follow both actors when next year’s shortlists are unveiled.

We’ve had a lot of biopics recently and this gives a better overall impression than The Theory Of Everything but doesn’t quite have the originality and biting script of Steve Jobs, despite bearing understandable similarities to both.

We’ve also seen a hell of a lot of space films in recent times and Chazelle is clever in subverting some of the traditions and themes we’ve become accustomed to after Gravity, Interstellar, Arrival, The Martian et al.

His cinematography is pressingly claustrophobic, often not leaving Armstrong’s helmet in cockpit scenes, and will leave you as nauseous and anxious as the pilots themselves. The sound is also overwhelming, the clangs and shakes of the machinery leaving you in no doubt what danger these people were in.

Chazelle’s camera keeps close to Gosling, which only makes it more stunning when he drops the sound and expands the view for the climactic moon scenes; truly breathtaking in their scope. The colour palette, the views of Earth and the moon’s surface make sense of the preamble, make sense of Armstrong’s undying determination even in the face of such adversity. Despite this though, we still feel Armstrong’s sadness, so far away from civilisation yet so close to his feelings, presented by Gosling even when obstructed in his spacesuit.

There’s no flag-waving here either; Chazelle presenting the many failures and inherent selfishness of the mission and its attempt to subvert the Russians in the space race.

A stunning, if long, depiction of a worthy individual with the requisite performances and cinematography to match. An awards banker and another giant leap for Damien Chazelle.

4 stars ****