First Take: First Man- one small step for man

SYNOPSIS:

A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

So, here we go then. Damien Chazelle is back. At just age 33, he has done big things in this industry, from his breakout film Whiplash, to 2016′s awards darling Moonlight La La Land. Now, he is tackling the Neil Armstrong biopic, with Stephen Spielberg executive producing it. Ladies and gentlemen, we may have found our current Film of The Year.

Chazelle delivers another fantastic film, directing the action as neatly as ever and coming in at a nice 2 hours 20 minutes, there’s enough time to let the script adapted from James R. Hansen’s book by Spotlight and The Post writer Josh Singer breathe, and it certainly needs it- there is a lot going on, especially with the IMAX lunar sequences, character development and plot progression. Linus Sandgren commands the cinematography department with ease, and frequent Chazelle collaborator Justin Hurwitz turns in another good score, making it another home run for the technical departments behind the scenes.

But then, you add a little Ryan Gosling to the mix. Seriously, the performances in this film are the bread and butter of this true big screen experience- Gosling and Claire Foy are able to drive the more emotional aspects of the plot home, and with a focus on how the Gemini and later the Apollo missions affected Armstrong’s family, this is an important aspect to nail, and they managed to nail it in the same way the cinema team fixed a brief technical glitch- we may have lost picture and audio for 2 seconds, but still… Supporting them is Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll and many others, but arguably this film is all about the moon landing sequence- if you can get to an IMAX screen, see this film there.

THE VERDICT

After watching this film, myself and friend of the blog Ed Greenberg (from UCLan’s Film Production degree) were speechless. See it big, see it loud, see it in IMAX Laser if you can- because this film, even with its inaccuracies, is one of the finest pieces of filmmaking seen on a big screen this year.

RATING: 5/5