A mostly stellar biopic.

Rating: 9/10 (18 October 2018)

I once hear a person say they would love to visit Australia, except that everything there could kill them. The same could be said for outer space. The only difference is Australia was meant as a joke.
This danger of space flight-and the fact that we, the audience, feel it so clearly-is just part of what makes First Man one of the best movies of 2018. Similar to The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 in content, but closer to Interstellar in tone and pacing, the film is a winning synthesis of top-notch acting and bold, skillful direction. In its weak points it echoes another Christopher Nolan film, Dunkirk, perhaps slowing its tempo and extending its silence a little too much. But like that film, these shortcomings make it different, and thus, memorable. Which, these days, is its own triumph.
Most of you know the story; many of you lived it. 1961 brings our first glimpse of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), testing a NASA plane as it climbs through the Earth's atmosphere into the lower reaches of space. Years pass. Friends are made, then-too often-lost at the hands of a crash or other malfunction.
First Man features three main flight sequences, and two of them are absolute nailbiters. The movie puts us at the visceral center of an era in which a handful of men volunteered to harness limited technology and primitive design to reach beyond the world they knew. They pushed the envelope of existence. We sense their fear, experience their heartbreak, and are left to wonder why they continue after enduring such sacrifice. But then, maybe we know the reasons.
Armstrong continues his rise through NASA as the decade progresses. The Gemini missions come and go, paving the way for Apollo. Soon the day nears when he'll begin a journey, and take a step, that no man ever has before. First Man accomplishes what every familiar, true story sets out to do: reveal to people the details they don't know and bring to life the headlines they do.
It all begins with simulating reality. To this end, director Damian Chazelle goes a step further than most by draping every shot in a grainy, time-period texture. From the Armstrongs' clapboard house to the sterilized halls of NASA, First Man is a movie about the 1960's that looks like it was filmed in the 1960's. This approach is effective and, next to the flash and gloss of most of today's releases, simply refreshing.
Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land), 33, has been called a wunderkind, and rightly so. But the label isn't so much due to his striking visuals or strong characters as it is his ability to make the audience feel. This is the hardest thing to do in movies. The right budget can buy brilliant special effects and pristine sound quality, but neither requires more than a surface response from those in the front row. How do you get them to care?
It helps to have an able cast. Gosling starred in La La Land, and it's fair to question whether inviting him back for First Man was more about comfort than quality. But it's difficult to imagine anyone else bringing more authenticity to the role. He imbues Armstrong with bravery, fear, anger, generosity-all the shades of a real human being. As his wife Janet, Clair Foy is equally strong in an equally meaty role. Their relationship is the beating heart of the film and just as compelling as every flight into space.
Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler and Cory Stoll lead a supporting crew so packed with talent that players like Shea Whigham, Ethan Embry and Brian d'Arcy James get mere seconds of screen time. Justin Hurwitz fills some of the void with a score that's separate parts tension, inspiration and emotion, but altogether original.
First Man spends just as much time on Earth as it does in space. It never forgets that any ship, no matter how fast, still needs a pilot. For all the miles it covers, the movie is a human story. That may well be its greatest achievement.