Movie Breakdown: First Man (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
One hundred percent loved Whiplash. One hundred percent loved La La Land. Ninety-nine percent chance that I will love First Man. Math is easy.
Post-Screening Ramble:
The opening five minutes of Damien Chazelle’s deep dive into Neil Armstrong and his, and America’s path, towards the moon, is breath-taking. Armstrong (a taciturn Ryan Gosling), captured in close-up shaky cam, attempts to pilot an experimental jet through the atmosphere. Chazelle, camera never drifting from the inside of the vehicle, captures the terrifying glory of experimental flight as Armstrong’s jet cuts into the lowest levels of space before bouncing off the atmosphere. It’s tense, beautiful and deserving of a plush seat in an IMAX theater. Chazelle has packed his film with moments like this, nerve-rattling dives into the danger of space flight, but First Man finds it’s footing in the slow exploration of Armstrong’s character. Haunted by the death of his young daughter, Armstrong buries his existence under his drive to succeed, slowly disappearing beneath a hardened shell. Claire Foy plays Janet Armstrong, equally tough but containing an explosive temper, and the glacial ups and downs of their relationship (and Armstrong’s relationship with his fellow astronauts) are, in a film stacked with strong performances and gorgeous cinematography, the highlights. The film’s first two-thirds as Armstrong rises through the ranks of the Gemini space missions (the precursors to Apollo) are fascinating portraits of Armstrong, the tight knit group of men who enter into space and the wives who bore the brunt of the emotional void they had to become to survive. Once Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (a perfectly obnoxious Corey Stoll) are gearing up for Apollo and the inevitable steps on the moon, the film loses some luster, with the more abstract emotional filmmaking of the Gemini scenes giving way to a more predictable, pomp heavy bluster. It isn’t bad, honestly it’s pretty amazing, it just doesn’t have the sparkle and emotional heft of what comes before. Regardless, First Man is virtuoso filmmaking, a huge step forward for a director who was already more than a few feet in front of his peers.
One Last Thought:
The music in the first half of the film is amazing, low and repetitive and almost sinister. As the film stretches towards the moon though, Chazelle drops the roiling undercurrent and replaces it with big horns for the bigger moments. In lieu of what came before it borders on manipulative.
One More Last Thought:
This film is stacked with male actors you haven’t seen in a while. Patrick Fugit, Lucas Haas, a lineless Ethan Embry – one could make an argument that there’s a certain innocence that lingers in their eyes or that some casting director had a thing for a certain era of dude actors.
And One More Last Thought:
More Claire Foy. She’s a blinding star in a film stuffed with them. I can’t wait for her take on Lisbeth Salander.
