One Small Step (Back) For Chazelle

Rating: 5/10 (7 February 2019)

I feel like this film is supposed to be trying to say something but I just can't tell what that is or if it is even trying at all. It is a different perspective of the "man" from the legendary "one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind". It takes a look at the dark side of the story of Neil Armstrong and tells the stories of his misfortunes. It does this, I think, poorly. If the movie's only goal was to tell the story of the First Man then, sure, it did a fine job but I find it hard to believe that this was supposed to simply be a dramatized documentary. There are frequent dramatic moments throughout the film that occurred in real life but left me feeling nothing. I can't remember a single moment when I felt like I was feeling any emotion other than mild frustration. Chazelle just isn't in his element. I don't think it was the musical aspect of his previous two films that brought out the quality in them. They had much better acting, more daring shots and less bad special effects. Ryan Gosling isn't close to as good as he was in La La Land. It's like he was told to act as melancholic and mysterious as possible while just quoting Armstrong. There isn't anything about his character, or any character for that matter, that I admired. I get the appeal of making a movie about one of the most important men in history and I get the appeal in trying to make something original but it seems that Chazelle's charm was lost in his ambition.