Who Knew Space Was Such a Slog?

Rating: 4/10 (25 February 2019)

Seriously, is the space program really this dreary?
Ok, so Damien Chazelle, the wunderkind director who wowed everyone with "Whiplash" and "La La Land," didn't want to make an astronaut movie in the traditional Hollywood mode of films such as, say, "The Right Stuff." Fair enough. Neil Armstrong was a bit of a reluctant hero, shy of fame and press and motivated more by internal reasons (according to this film, at least) than by the glamour of the space program. Indeed, this movie seems to be saying that the glamour highlighted in other movies is largely a fiction, and that the real story is one of hard and thankless work, drudgery, stress, anxiety, loneliness, you name it. I believe that that's true. But is any of that reason to inflict such a gloomy slog of a movie on us? Was Neil Armstrong really the blank-faced automaton as portrayed by Ryan Gosling? Do we have to drain every ounce of excitement and wonder out of the story just to make it more authentic? Because even if it's not as exciting or dramatic as "The Right Stuff" makes it look, still, space travel is pretty cool, and we should be allowed our sense of awe at seeing a man walk on the moon for the first time.
And Chazelle's directorial choices are irritatingly claustrophobic throughout this film. I get that he wants us to perceive events from the perspective of the astronauts, which accounts for the tight and shaky frames and limited viewpoints, but he sticks so rigidly to his aesthetic that he makes it literally difficult to see what's going on, which just becomes aggravating after a while.
The movie does have one thing going for it, which is Justin Hurwitz's wonderful score. It's the only thing about the film that comes close to being rousing, and it deserves a better movie.
No wonder this one bombed.
Grade: D