Universal Pictures
Damien Chazelle has directed four films in his life. He started his directing career with Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench back in 2009 as a senior project with Justin Hurwitz at Harvard University. In 2013, Chazelle scored 5 Academy Award nominations for his film Whiplash starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. In 2017, he won best director for his highly successful, La La Land, a film that landed itself as #1 on my best movies list of 2017. I was highly anticipating his fourth film because I have loved the films he has created and I admire the way he works the camera. Chazelle has focused his career on music with his previous films all involving people breaking out in song or learning to play an instrument. When I heard that Chazelle would be directing a film that wasn’t a musical, I was initially sad. The thought of Chazelle not doing another musical broke my heart.
First Man tells the true story of the legendary American astronaut Neil Armstrong, played by Ryan Gosling. This covers his life from 1961 to 1969 and his journey to becoming the first human to walk on the moon. First Man also stars Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong, with Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, and Lukas Haas as Mike Collins, the other people to walk alongside Armstrong on the moon.
First Man is easily one of the best-looking films of the year. Chazelle crafts this film so well that I felt like I got to witness the Apollo launch in real life. Two scenes towards the end, the launch and the moon landing, were breathtaking to the point where I leaned forward in my seat with a sense of awe. The film presents a grainy style that makes it feel like it is filmed in the 60s.
We first meet Armstrong almost skipping an experimental plane off into space, which allows for his superiors to think that he’s a danger to himself. His determination to explore the boundaries of Earth lead him to applying for NASA when they seek new trainee astronauts. In the early years of Armstrong’s life, he lost his young daughter, Karen, which haunts him as his successful application starts his new career. The loss of his daughter follows him throughout the movie and Gosling provides an emotionless performance that some may be put off by. I found his performance to be both believable and heartbreaking. Armstrong endured a lot during his career at NASA and witnessed several of his teammates lose their lives in their pursuit of walking on the moon. First Man doesn’t sugarcoat the process of their Apollo missions. The shocking loss of friends and colleagues gives the film its dramatic weight.
First Man clocks in at 2 hours and 21 minutes and it does feel very long. The film captures the trial and error of space travel. This results in a lot of downtime, which I honestly checked out at. It may have been the fact that I saw this film at 10 o’clock at night, but regardless, the film had many scenes that felt long. I understand there was a lot to be done to get to the moon and Armstrong’s life was recounted as well, but it felt terribly boring at times.
Justin Hurwitz once again works with Damien Chazelle on scoring this film. Hurtwitz’s melancholy score captures the loss and tragedy Armstrong went through as he progressed further into his space journey. Hurwitz and Chazelle are a perfect combination and the much deeper dark score Hurwitz created fit so well into First Man.
First Man is a fantastic achievement that could easily score big in many categories at the Academy Awards next year, but unfortunately it isn’t Damien Chazelle’s best film. The film looks stunning and the acting is very believable, but the length of the film really does hit you in the 1st and 2nd act. I am still excited to see what Chazelle does next, hopefully it is another musical.
First Man has a run time of 2 hours 21 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some thematic content involving peril, and brief strong language.
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