Chazelle is 3 for 3...

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2018)

For my money Chazelle is the best young director working today and First Man is another smashing success. Mostly interested in the subjective feelings experienced by Armstrong during space travel on the one hand and the human cost to his family on the other this is a gripping portrayal of man who loses himself to impossible work to hide his grief. The story does de-empathizes the political aspects (most are mentioned in passing) of the history but it does so to focus on the personal. Through I love how the question of whether the social-political cost of the space program is worth its benefits is asked along side the question of with whether the human cost to Armstrong's family is worth it. It makes everything personal about this telling of the story
The film is at its best when it is entirely visual. The various space flight sequences are shocking and fresh given the close up and subjective camera work Chazelle favors. And when the film does go wide for various shots of space travel they are striking and refreshing different from other films covering similar material. The film is interested in the juxtaposition of the the infinity of outer space against the infinity complexities of single human being. Chazelle keeps this juxtaposition throughout but its subtle and not over done.
While the film isn't as personal as Whiplash or La La Land, Chazelle does manage to let his personality through. Several of the space travel scenes are scored with jazzy music and it feels like a modern update of 2001 in that regard while connecting to Whiplash and La La Land.
The script is smart, the acting powerful and the direction sublime. All in all this is a fine film and should be in the running come award season.