First Man

By: Jennifer Verzuh

Damien Chazelle’s first two films (the wildly successful La La Land and Whiplash) are brimming with life, energy, and, above all, passion. The passion his character feel towards their craft (be it music or acting) as well as each other and, perhaps even more importantly, the obvious passion Chazelle has himself for his work. He’s a director whose clearly in love with the craft of filmmaking and you can feel it not just in each scene, but in each individual shot. Unfortunately, that same passion is strangely missing in his latest film First Man, which just screened at Telluride Film Festival following its world premiere in Venice, making it his weakest work yet despite the technical strengths.

This outing is his most ambitious project yet, even more so than creating an original musical. He’s tasked with re-creating astronaut Neil Armstrong’s (played by Ryan Gosling) journey to becoming the first man to step foot on the moon – a person and event with which people of all ages and nationalities are at least a little familiar. Perhaps this is why he played it so safe. Chazelle stuck to the facts, interested more in what happened versus how it made anyone (even Neil) feel. Though the story makes a focal point of the loss of Neil and his wife Janet’s young daughter, the film by and large steers clear of getting deep into his personal life and focuses on him and his colleagues at NASA’s (a group that includes made up of actors Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll, Christopher Abbott and Kyle Chandler) years long dangerous crusade.

And although it sadly falls flat on inspiring or showcasing much emotion, its technical aspects are where it really excels. The visual and audio components are excellent whenever he’s up in the air or in space and immediately put you right there with him, both stressed out and marveling at the world below. Thanks to sharp camerawork, great effects, strong set building (the detail that went into creating the interior of these crafts is astounding) and robust editing you constantly feel the danger Armstrong and the others are in with the magnitude of their mission to space and their tiny, relatively unprepared place in it. It’s legitimately harrowing and awe inspiring.

Unfortunately, the performances are perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the entire film. Not because anyone does a particularly bad job, but rather because we know they’re capable of so much more. The fact is, sadly, they’re simply not being asked by Josh Singer’s script or Chazelle to do anything too compelling. Gosling is oddly rather lifeless here, stoic to put it nicely. It’s difficult to see why this mission matters so much to his character. And because he doesn’t seem to care much, it’s hard for the viewer to as well. If he gets a nomination, it will likely be because of his status and known skill as an actor rather than his work in this specific film.

Claire Foy doesn’t fare much better as Janet Armstrong. We’ve seen this character in biopics about great men more times than anyone can keep track of and, unfortunately, nothing new or interesting is brought to this archetype here. She gets a moment or two, as is standard, to yell and vent her frustrations at her husband and how he needs to start caring about his family as much as his job, but beyond that her work here is fairly stale. She doesn’t come across as her own independent character, but rather merely a support system for Neil. If you want to see her really perform and stretch her limitations as an actress I’d recommend this year’s Unsane instead. At the very least though I will admit she and Gosling have good chemistry, but it’s not utilized well. Unlike other biopics like The Theory of Everything and A Beautiful Mind, the love story here never quite fully develops or captures our interest.

Neil Armstrong’s story and that of the Gemini 8 and Apollo 11 missions are certainly worth revisiting. I, along with I’m guessing many of my generation and younger, know actually very little about it and the insane difficulties and many deaths that preceded it. In fact, one leaves the film marveling how it was even possible after all. However, I can’t help but feel viewers would get just as much, if not more, out of a documentary about the subject than this lackluster dramatization, which is the last thing I thought I’d say about a Chazelle film. I didn’t leave feeling inspired or invested, rather just bored despite the moments of excitement we get from inside the spacecraft.