Maybe not Out of This World, but it's Stellar!

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2019)

Damien Chazelle has designed claustrophobic atmosphere to externally replicate the melancholy that surrounds our grief-stricken protagonist and his family. Moreover, the contrast between the omen of failure that permeates almost every scene and Armstrong's commitment to achieve his goal added up something quite special to the movie.
Besides being devastated and heartbroken, we often see that Armstrong is incapable of communicating or expressing his feelings to his dearest ones. And there are few actors nowadays who can portray such an introvert character dealing with repressed emotions, depression and anxiety. Actually there might be no one who is up for this task, except for one guy; the inimitable awesome Canadian, Ryan Gosling, who is able to express any character's feelings with the slightest and simplest facial expressions. Claire Foy is almost equally brilliant. And it weren't for her and Gosling, it would be extremely difficult for me to feel any tension and sorrow at certain moments in the movie.
Speaking of which, the movie suffers a great deal on the dramatic level, despite all the feels Chazelle and the two leads have succeeded to convey. First and foremost, the documentary-like structure of the movie hindered the experience of watching it so badly. The movie contains of chapters that don't always even seem to be connected to each other. Sometimes the movie simply jumps from an event to another, and then tries to convince us that it's all related by showing how our protagonist is traumatized by a certain tragic incident. That leads us to my second issue, which is this very tragic incident. Despite the fact it plays a major part in the story and not only for the sake of emotional manipulation, this tragedy that the movie leans upon solely as a motivation for the protagonist, as well as an integral part of the dramatic aspect, is clichÃ©d, unconvincing, surprisingly weak, and utilized quite poorly. It's a miracle that it worked very well at the end as well as everything else in the awe-inspiring, breathtaking, gorgeous-looking, extremely intense and immensely satisfying final act that followed a thrilling climax.
First Man is one of those biopics where you know what is about to happen, but can't help but get caught up in the rising suspense of its breathtaking scenes. The movie should have been nominated from the Academy in many other categories, including best Cinematography, and, of course, Best Actor and Actress in Leading Roles for Gosling and Foy, respectively. I would be lying if I said that I didn't find it a bit disappointing, but it's only so because I expected better, or rather to be permanently engaged throughout its running-time, from one of my all-time favorite filmmakers.
(8/10)