Review of First Man (2018) by Mrmoviebuff — 13 Oct 2018

There is another user reviewer on this site who I respect named 'BrianMcCritic' who, in his review said that director Damien Chazelle is "one of the best young filmmakers of our time", I have to second that.

'First Man' is, in a word, a masterpiece. A well made character study about an everyday man who makes the risky decision to fly to the moon and make history. We see Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) living a somewhat quiet life, dealing with the loss of his daughter and trying to reason with his wife, Janet (a superb Claire Foy) and the rest of his kids.

He goes through many tough training techniques and tries to properly assess himself if he is going to fly a great distance into space and away from the earth. There are so many effective uses of point-of-view shots throughout when Armstrong is flying many distances and even when things get out of control, director Chazelle wants you - the audience member - to feel the uneasy tension, there is a fantastic sequence in the middle of the film when Armstrong and another astronaut find themselves in a malfunctioning situation, and you will feel a little spent from the extended amount of time we are seeing them try to get out of the dangerous task.

Obviously, you know what our main character achieves towards the end of his story, he does land on the moon, Chazelle cleverly makes this moment slow, building up the tension and leaving room for all the emotions to sink in.

It's quiet, no music and very little dialogue. You feel as if you are there with Armstrong experiencing history. No other words can be used to describe this fantastic scene, you just have to see it for yourself.

As I said above, this is a character study movie about Armstrong himself, and the decision he makes and his family's reaction to it. Don't go in thinking it's going to be some "Star Trek" style space adventure.

It's about a man... "The First Man" so we say, his story involves everything we need to know about him here. It's a fascinating piece of filmmaking and storytelling, and one of the best movies of the year.