First Man is a character examination above all. Chazelle gives it a singular historical focus - Neil Armstrong - and tries to figure out who he is. The film begins in the early 60s. Neil (Ryan Gosling) gets tested with a family tragedy and refocuses himself on his desire to get to outer space. The film carries on through the different hurtles of the Space Race, all the way through to the moon landing (If this much is a spoiler, then you need to open a history book). It keeps a singular focus on Neil. The only times the film follows someone else, primarily his wife, Janet (Claire Foy), is to see the effect Neil has on their lives. Saying that the movie fails the Bechdel Test is true but also misses the point.
The way Chazelle makes his mark among outer space movies is with his focus on the experience of being in there. He's more concerned with what's going on inside than out. We hear every creak of the ship, every fluctuation of the metal structure. I've never been more amazed that we were able to get to the moon, because I've never thought about the rockets as real things that had to be built by men. Those things are rickety and a million mistakes could've been made. In First Man when something goes wrong, it's happening to the pilot, not the ship. Chazelle would rather see what's going on inside that outside. It's an intense experience that I'm glad I saw on an XD screen.
For as close as the film puts us to what's going on - there are a lot of close-ups and zooms - it always keeps us at a distance emotionally. Neil isn't an emotional man. I've never seen Gosling underplay so much. It's a tremendously restrained performance; the kind of work that rarely wins Oscars simply because the people with flashier performances stand out more. My favorite performance in the film might actually be Claire Foy. She's not necessarily better than Gosling. She does a lot more with less. It's an underwritten character. Like everyone else, she barely exists beyond what she means to Neil. That doesn't stop her from trying though. It didn't even occur to me until I got out of the movie that I didn't actually know a thing about her character's past or personal story. Foy injects the performance with so much life. If she doesn't manage to get an Oscar nomination for this, it will entirely be because it's so hard to separate the writing from the performance. The rest of the cast is rounded out with familiar faces like Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Ethan Embry, and Patrick Fugit, who give sturdy performances. I particularly enjoyed Corey Stoll's Buzz Aldrin. I'm pretty sure Chazelle's direction for him was something like "Remember, he's kind of an asshole but not a bad guy".
First Man is more marked by what it isn't than by what it is. I realize this was already in development before La La Land was released, but it's hard not to look at this as a direct response to it for both Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling. For Chazelle, it's him proving that he doesn't need music to be successful. So far, he's made two musicals (Guy & Madeline on a Park Bench and La La Land) and one film about a music school (Whiplash). First Man is a complete departure from that. As far as I'm concerned, Chazelle has more than proven himself. He can go in whatever direction he wants with his career and I'll be on board. For Gosling, First Man is proof that he doesn't have to rely on his charm. Even something as dark as Half Nelson needed some of that Gosling smile to work. He dials all of that down this time and is as good as ever.
Much like Dunkirk last year, there's no need for First Man. The topic has been covered enough. That doesn't make it a bad movie. In fact, it's a pretty good one. The execution is top notch from the technical elements like visual effects and production design to the cast of actors giving fully realized performances, sometimes despite the writing of the characters. This is one of those perfectly agreeable "Steak Eater" kind of Oscar nominees (think Bridge of Spies), and that's plenty.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment