It’s difficult to imagine that in an era of Space X and the possibility of Life on Mars that we could leapt onto the moon only as recently as 1969. Since then, computers that would have paled in comparison to a USB stick have greatly evolved and so has our diet for CGI exploration movies of the Apollo 13, Gravity and Interstellar kind. Keeping the narrative grounded in not only the lead up to the final destination but the emotional journey of its pilots is Damien Chazelle (reuniting with his La La Land star Ryan Gosling). Claire Foy is the restrained albeit stoic wife Janet Armstrong who joins the club of women who know all too well that death is around the corner while her famous husband Neil is constantly confronting his own grief.
Before the risk of getting old timey and proving those pesky, risk averse critics that they were going to land all along, it’s worth remembering the opposition and immense pressure these men and women faced. Incredibly, the montage testing scenes of failing equipment make for some great comic relief, but the second you get too strapped in you’re propelled for some gut wrenching scenes that remind you of the real gravity of the task ahead. Collaboration and the sacrificing of personal ego are solid shuttles that shute the narrative into play, and more so than the pitter pattering of the scientific and mathematical obstacles is the underlying tension of the individual’s life valued against the corporation’s.
Visually and in film score, the film delights with stunning space landscapes and bounds into another, perhaps foreign world that is reminiscent of another, nostalgic era. You’re treated with pure awe and wonder for even seeing just space itself, and there’s a particularly poignant end scene on the moon crater that brings the film full circle (or sphere, as it were).
Unless this is all some kind of calculated ruse à la Capricorn One, First Man is a movie that celebrates not only the landing, but the liftoff of so many people who were gutsy enough to dream but humble enough to put the mission above their own mortalities. This is one for the adults who were there, but their children can also marvel at a world that still hadn’t been mapped out on a GPS via Google Earth.
Truly goes above and beyond.
Verdict: 9/10
Universal Pictures Australia
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