First Man (2018)

Directed by: Damien Chazelle | 141 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Patrick Fugit, Christopher Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Olivia Hamilton, Pablo Schreiber, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas, Ethan Embry, Brian d’Arcy James, Cory Michael Smith Kris Swanberg

Just turned thirty and already have an Oscar to your name for Best Director. Damien Chazelle immediately delivered two masterpieces with his first two films, ‘Whiplash’ and ‘La La Land’, and it seems that the label ‘prodigy’ has long since gone beyond. It’s no surprise that expectations for ‘First Man’, his biopic about astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, are particularly high.

‘First Man’ follows Armstrong over a period of about ten years, eventually resulting in those world-famous words: ‘that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. In the beginning, however, Chazelle mainly focuses on the tragic dark side of Armstrong’s life: he and his wife Janet (strong role Claire Foy from ‘The Crown’) lose their daughter at a young age to a debilitating illness.

During the film we see how Armstrong loses himself more and more in his work and turns away from his family: he bottle up the emotions about the loss of his daughter and shows himself more and more a closed stronghold. Meanwhile, the danger in the missions increases and Armstrong sees colleagues and friends around him fall prey to the dangers of the space missions.

The biggest fear with a movie like ‘First Man’ is the excessive patriotism that Hollywood is guilty of more than once. It also immediately attracted criticism from the first showings of the film: the American flag is not hoisted on the moon, and the film is said to lack a healthy dose of American hero worship.

Perhaps it is because Chazelle is a Canadian at the helm: he manages to approach Armstrong in a fairly neutral way. He remains an elusive figure, too headstrong for hero status and too stoic to dwell on his own success. In fact, (unfortunate) coincidence sometimes seems to play a bigger role than his talent in Armstrong’s career.

It only makes ‘First Man’ a better film: Chazelle opts for a remarkably calm approach, so that the spectacle remains quite subdued. It makes the image of space travel more oppressive and less bombastic, and it also gives ‘First Man’ something intimate. Because Chazelle almost never takes the camera off Armstrong in space, you fully experience his pressure, and it never becomes a hackneyed space adventure. The pace is not fast, which will certainly scare off parts of the general public, but it turns out fantastic: ‘First Man’ becomes such a distant but intriguing character sketch, and a claustrophobic, almost documentary-like space drama.

The here (as usual) excellent acting Ryan Gosling must have imagined himself a fish in water with his portrayal of Armstrong: where in recent years he had more and more opportunities to display his comedic talent as an actor, he returns in ‘First Man’ back to the stoic, taciturn hero he previously played in films such as ‘Drive’. A third Oscar nomination is undoubtedly in the pipeline.

Although musical themes are omitted here, a pattern can indeed be discovered in the main characters in Chazelle’s work. In ‘Whiplash’ it was the enormous sacrifice and deep commitment to a career as a drummer, in ‘La La Land’ accepting a life without love in the service of jazz and in ‘First Man’ it was the family that came second. : Losing yourself in your work because you have too much trouble to ground yourself in the daily conventions. Armstrong is also a man who loses himself in his own dedication and ambition.

What struck me earlier in ‘La La Land’ was that Chazelle also has a more than excellent command of the technical side of directing (remember that wonderful opening scene, or the perfectly executed epilogue). ‘First Man’ is another step in the proof of Chazelle’s craftsmanship: the images in the booths are oppressive, the film style beautifully grainy. It therefore certainly pays to watch the film in the best image and sound quality (if only for the breathtaking moon scenes!).

It could just be that Chazelle will win his second Oscar in 2019: ‘First Man’ is yet another confirmation that he is no longer a ‘prodigy’; he has long belonged to the absolute top.