First Man (2018)

Two things about the very existence of this film struck me as odd before I even saw it. 1) First Man is director Damien Chazelle's follow up to La La Land, and other then the presence of Ryan Gosling as the male lead these movies are nothing like each other. 2) Why hasn't there been a major Hollywood film about Neil Armstrong before? I mean he was the first man to set foot on the moon, that's an inherently cinematic story. Also its been nearly 50 years, why did it take so long for him to get his own movie? Well I think I found the answer to that latter question, the reason there hasn't been a Neil Armstrong film up till now is likely because he was a very boring man. Now he's an interesting man in what he did, I mean not only did he go to the moon, but he survived a lot of things he probably shouldn't have survived before then because he so damned competent. However Armstrong was very much a man of his time, a mid-century, mid-westerner who kept his feelings to himself, and this movie does a good job of dealing with that dynamic of its central character, Gosling does a fine job inhabiting him in a nicely understated performance. Still a dullish central character lends a bit of dullishness to the proceedings. Buzz Aldrin on the other hand, as essayed by Corey Stoll, is an amusing blunt fellow.

Claire Foy, who seems very much the "It" actress right now does a great job as Neil's first wife Janet. I knew basically nothing about Mrs. Armstrong going into the film, but Ms. Foy gives a fine performance and makes her feel real and rounded out. This movie fires on all cylinders technically, and while a lot of the NASA stuff we've in seen in film going back at least to Apollo 13 in 1995, it's the portions on the Moon that really adds something fresh. We don't see the surface of the moon in films often, and the quality of the footage from that first lunar landing is so visually poor and hard to make out, it was nice to see this event depicted in HD. I had not made out previously the little pulley system that was attached to the astronauts belts as they disembarked, and how that worked. You see how the camera that took  the moon landing footage folded out from the side of the lander, and how desolate, quite, and beautiful the surface of the moon must have appeared. As a human story First Man felt constrained, but as depiction of one of the most impressive things human kind has every done, its worthwhile.

On the controversy over this film not depicting the planting of the American flag on the surface of the moon, before seeing the film that did appear to be a glaring oversight, having seen it now a depiction of that moment would have really messed with the flow of the piece. Very little time in this movie is actually spent on the moons surface, I don't know if that counts as a spoiler or not. Anyway I did not get the feeling that any slight was intended by the omission of that moment. ***1/2