Not the right stuff

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2019)

I'm sure many were hoping for the right stuff: another epic celebration of the one of the great victories of the USA, nay, mankind. But this movie puts the story of man going to the moon in another perspective.
It's Neil Armstrong's experience of it, not as the flight nut he certainly was, but the father and man that a terrible gauntlet of loss and grief could have made him. And yet he finds catharsis and in a way, it's an important part of the miraculous achievement of these explorers who risked it all.
It's Neil that has the right perspective, both of the importance of the mission, as of the dreadful cost to the people involved. Meanwhile, the world isn't exactly waiting breathlessly for the US to pull off its trick - there is opposition, competition and doubt. But when the moment is there, it is transformative. And that is what the movie is about.
I'm sure more movies will be made and surely some will sing the heroic praises and spin the drama, like so many seemed to be hoping for. But First Man remains a strong film all the same - though not perfect either, so 8/10 it is.