First Man - traditional biopic with amazing last half hour

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2018)

So here is the problem, that's a bit negative, lets say issue. Chazelle has made two films: one is the biopic which runs for just under two hours and then one of the greatest half hours in the last decade as he blows through every stop sign, giving us the most cinematic moon landing thus rendered.
Gosling is very good as a really boring man: he has enough charisma to make that work which then allows Claire Foy to steal the entire film with every steely raise of her eyebrow. Her eyes must get paid extra as she does with one steely glance what the rest of the cast do in a three page monologue. The ensemble is nothing short of amazing with shoutouts to perennials like Kyle Chandler and Corey Stoll.
The structure is so throughline it is transported from the 50's. The pacing is glacial especially in the second act. Yet....yet every time Chazelle locks the viewer down in the most subjective astronaut scenes, the heart rate escalates. This is helped enormously by the score, especially sound editing - this is a righteously NOISY film, that puts you on top of a rocket with every sense.
The film is almost a love letter to a different type of America - a different type of heroic masculinity. One in which humility and expertise were admired and where a showboat might get you killed.