'First Man' A Review

First Man is a biopic about Neil Armstrong(Ryan Gosling) and the Apollo 11 moon landing. The film opens on a breathtaking scene of Armstrong as test pilot skating along above the atmosphere. It quickly transitions into the illness and untimely death of his young daughter which becomes the driving force of Armstrong as a character and the film. Cutting back and forth between Armstrong pouring himself obsessively into his work and his wife Janet(Claire Foy) who stoically but clearly pained takes care of their home and two sons essentially alone. The film culminates in the historical moon landing.

Gosling is reserved but maintains his inherent magnetism, proving if he hasn't already that he is the heir to the Hollywood leading man title seemingly recently vacated by Brad Pitt. He's good and gives more with doing a lot less. Foy also gives a dynamic performance and the film allows relatively equal time to both spouses. Cutting between Gosling's character's obsession at work with the very real and emotional isolation Foy's character is left in forced to take care of their home and children solo, this forces her to actually feel (the only real character who emotes at all) and as such she is the heart of the film. The supporting cast is stacked with talent albeit almost all white male middle aged talent, which has an adverse effect on how compelling any of the character arcs turn out to be.

Most of the entire film is shot on shaky hand-held with the occasional gasp-inducing panorama which creates a very lived-in intimate feel. And this is the most captivating aspect of the film, the cinematography clearly and cleanly puts us in this time and place in all its fear and potential triumph.

The craft of the film is inarguable. The issues are the questions of why and why now. It's not reasonable to expect movies coming out in the wake of our current cultural upheaval to address it either directly or indirectly however it is reasonable to expect some attempt at diversity and inclusion, it is reasonable to expect some kind of reaction. It is a movie about a major historical moment in US history and art is not made in a vacuum. Certainly there is some intention at play here but what is it, blandness? Some kind of ill-conceived "neutrality"? This film, however well made, could have been made at any time, it is a film populated by white males, mythologizing the stoic white male hero, hearkening back to a time of (even more strident) white male dominance. We have seen this story countless times and there is nothing in it, beyond a skilled cameraperson, that necessitates its retelling. There is a brief scene of Leon Bridges as Gil Scott-Heron performing Whitey On The Moon however it's inclusion is not addressed or explored or even really acknowledged in any way.

First Man is well made and entertaining to a point but it is as toothless as Damien Chazelle's previous Oscar contender La La Land and right now I think we should require more of our art not less. 23 years after Apollo 13 and 2 years after Hidden Figures this can't help but feel regressive.

Exceeding visuals, lacking content.

Rent It.