The Triumph of the Therapeutic

Rating: 3/10 (20 October 2018)

OK, credit duly given to the technical accomplishments of "First Man" are indeed something to behold-Chazelle shot it on 35MM with IMAX cameras-but sadly he never explored the inner universe of his subject. We are left with a relentless and mind-numbing shaky-cam torture chamber for the viewer that at the end of the day undermines even the greatest strength of the film, its cinematographic prowess.
The consequence of such technical one-dimensionality is we never feel the complexity of emotions and politics that created this uniquely American man and narrative. Chazelle frames Armstrong's journey by starting with the death of his daughter at a very young age. Already a quiet man, Armstrong became even more so after it, never even talking about it with his wife , and pouring himself into his work. Sadly, Chazelle's trajectory remains merely psychological. We are left with a reading of "First Man" that it's about a man who had to go to the moon to get over a tragedy no one should ever have to face. Chazelle reduces the cultural, emotional, political and spiritual complexity that is and was Neil Armstrong into a one-dimensional psychological narrative: the grieving father. There is more to both the Apollo Generation and Neil Armstrong than that.
Chazelle mutes and ignores the interwoven cultural, social and political milieu that fueled the NASA projects . Technical virtuosity alone cannot tell that story.
Neil Armstrong and Apollo's triumph was about more than the merely therapeutic.