First Man: A Good Small Leap for Chazelle’s Career

    Discovering new talent is always a treat when it comes to watching new films that excel in everything a film should strive to be. No up and coming filmmaker describes this than Damien Chazelle with his film Whiplash, a movie that was so small but so outstanding in every single aspect. His career continues further with his beautiful tribute to classic cinema in La La Land, which was just as outstanding as Whiplash was if not better. Now with a lot of recognition in his work, Chazelle comes back with another film, this time a Biopic on the man who did the impossible at the time, Neil Armstrong. First Man may not be one giant leap for Chazelle’s career as a filmmaker as it is significantly weaker than his previous two films, but it is a good small step for him to further on his path of being one of the true great of modern cinema.

     First Man tells the story of Neil Armstrong’s life from when he started to become an Astronaut, up until he makes his triumph landing on the moon. It also goes over some of the various elements leading up to his trip such as his relationship with his children, him training for the big event and also him trying to cope with the loss of some of the people he loves. The film tells this story fairly well giving us a good idea of the situations Armstrong dealt with over the years, but also doesn’t quite feel as personal as other films of this caliber. The film has a lot of exposition leading up to the climatic moon landing sequence but despite all of it being essential; it also feels a bit slow. The audience feels like it’s taking its time to discuss the process of how they’re going to get there but less time to really get a sense of what Armstrong is going through at points. It seems like the relationship with the family in particular doesn’t quite go as deep as it should have, with us not getting a sense of how his family feels about his journey. However, that is not to say the film’s build up to the trip to the moon isn’t interesting, or there are not some good character moments between Neil Armstrong and his family. The buildup does create for some excellent moments showcasing how training to be an astronaut isn’t as glamorous as one would think with a lot of intense moments done through some excellent filmmaking. Chazelle also uses his filmmaking skills within character relationships as there are a decent amount of very subtle moments with the characters not having any sort of dialogue yet speaking so profoundly with their facial expressions. This is due to some excellent performances from everyone across the board especially Ryan Gosling who is phenomenal in every scene he’s in. it also works due to the fact that Chazelle can portray that very well within his movies, having his best moments of his films be ones where the actions speak much louder than the words. All of this is true here as the film’s final moments do portray a very emotional sendoff without a single utter of dialogue said, and it’s done quite beautifully. First Man’s story maybe on the slow side but does get a lot accomplished despite this.

     Part of what makes First Man a more engaging film despite its shortcoming script wise comes from Damien Chazelle as a director, who still showcases a lot of his skill while also deviating from what he has done before. Being a biopic that has to be regulated to the story of the actual person, Chazelle doesn’t quite have the freedom of showcasing a lot of creativity in the same way he did with Whiplash and La La Land. The film has a much more realistic and period piece look to it which ends up being beneficial, the choice of shooting this on film was excellent as it has an old 60s-70s style look to it that makes you feel like you’re a part of that time period. However the true jaw dropping visual moment comes later when we witness the moon landing sequence, Chazelle makes this moment beautiful giving it a sense of realism with the amount of silence, how practical and real the set looks and also being shot on camera making the sequence larger than life. Even though the true best sequence is in the end of the film, the film has a lot of great moments building up to it from a technical standpoint, making the training for the moon sequence much more claustrophobic with tons of shaky cam and most of the training taking place inside the ships themselves. It makes the film have a great sense of realism that is needed and something that tends to be unseen in space movies like this. The score by Justin Hurwitz is also outstanding, being very calm and soothing to the ears, even if some moments sound vaguely similar to his score of La La Land, the music adds a nice touch to the film. Chazelle’s knack for filmmaking shines through big time being a different kind of film from his other works.

    First Man is one good film from Damien Chazelle, but may seem somewhat of a disappointment considering how his films prior were some of the best of their kind. Then again it’s hard to follow up a movie as perfect as La La Land and Whiplash, that’s completely different and for what it is worth, First Man is definitely worth a watch. It’s subtle, beautifully shot and over-all engaging with some excellent craft on screen, even if the film can be rather slower than Chazelle’s other works.