First Man is fine. It's a fine movie with fine actors from a fine director. Everything is fine. In fact, there's a LOT of good in the movie. So, why didn't I really care walking out of the theater? Why has it taken me three days to write this? Why is the only thing I wanted to do after the movie was over was watch Apollo 13? It's because, apparently, fine isn't good enough anymore when it comes to biopics. Biopics can't just be the run-of-the-mill story of someone we deem important. These movies have to think outside the box. I'm not exactly talking I'm Not There out of the box, but at least it did something different. Whiplash and La La Land director Damien Chazelle should've been the new blood in Hollywood to breathe fresh life into the standard biopic structure. And while he DOES give us some new tricks... at the end of the day all I can say about First Man is that it's fine. But I probably won't watch it again.
Ryan Gosling is Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. The movie focuses half on the trials and tribulations of working toward becoming the first man to walk on the moon, and the second half delves into Neil's family life. One of the major events in Armstrong's life is the death of his young daughter to cancer. Neil never really appropriately deals with her death. He turns to his work as a distraction, unwilling to talk to his co-workers or his wife (Claire Foy) about it. Neil becomes more and more distant from his family, unable to even talk to his young sons about his moon mission (unwilling to accept the fact that these kids need to understand the serious risks) until his wife forces him to do so. These are the little conflicts in the film - plus there's the actual mission to the moon. Since we all know that the Apollo 11 mission was relatively uneventful when it comes to conflict, the filmmakers find other ways to introduce tension in the film. The failed tests, the countless astronauts who died in the name a stupid space race with the Soviet Union, the claustrophobic feel of being in the shuttle seat, etc. But, unlike Apollo 13 there's really not a lot of tension in the film that the viewer can latch onto. The moon landing itself is gorgeous and I wish I'd seen it in IMAX for those moments alone. Chazelle really puts the audience on the moon and it's a glorious moment that truly elevates the movie from so-so to fine. But in a two and a half hour film, wading through the sludge leading up to it is more of a chore than anything.
What I really respect about the film, and about Chazelle in particular, is that he really did try to give us a new feel to the biopic. Chazelle wanted to give the viewer a truly immersive experience. He doesn't show standard wide shots of CGI space shuttles rocketing into space. He puts us right in the seat - the shaking, loud, creaky, confined seat where Armstrong sits. He doesn't want you to watch Neil's journey, he wants you to feel it, to experience it. And it does work a lot of the time because you get a new experience with this film - the experience as close to what Neil went through himself. He focuses on the little details, the limited visual scope the astronauts themselves would've had (like an extended shot of just Neil's POV on a screw in the hull that shakes wildly as the rocket propels itself into the air). And while this shakiness does put the viewer really in Neil's seat, after awhile it does get kind of nauseating. If anything, this movie showed me that there's no way my stomach could take being shot into space. And it's in this experimental filmmaking that First Man does shine. It's unexpected and it's gorgeous. Most of the movie should be a virtual reality theme park ride, complete with shaking seats because it's that immersive. But it's the paint-by-numbers story of Armstrong's life that really weighs down the movie.
Neil Armstrong is the perfect Ryan Gosling role. He's quiet, he's stoic, he's subdued, it's rare to get any emotion from him... it's what Gosling has perfected over his career. Only this time, the stoic character he's portraying - Neil Armstrong - is just kind of boring. Yes, we empathize with him over the death of his daughter and even understand why he is the way he is... but he's just so emotionally closed off for the majority of the film that the "interesting" factor one looks for in a movie is all but missing. The rest of the cast is fine as well. Claire Foy does a lot more with her character than simply just 60s housewife. Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Patrick Fugit all give their charming personas to the ensemble of the film, but the movie never really hit that point where it drew me in. I wanted to not just be immersed in the experience of space flight, I want to be immersed in the lives of full and interesting characters and it was just missing from the movie.
I'm not unhappy that I saw First Man and I really did appreciate what Chazelle did with trying to take a basic biopic script and elevate it above it's average structure with his vision. I applaud him for taking us inside the ship and helping the viewer feel the movie instead of just watch it. But Chazelle can only do so much. I'll probably never watch the movie again, but it does get me even more excited to see Chazelle's career skyrocket (pun intended) because he's just getting started on changing the way we see movies.
C+
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