FIRST MAN
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cert: 12A. 141 mins
First Man could work as a companion piece to other films about the human side of the space programme, like Hidden Figures and The Dish.
This one centres on Neil Armstrong’s (Ryan Gosling) journey to becoming the first man on the moon, as his wife Janet (Claire Foy) tries to manage how their family emotionally copes with the challenges of the situation. The story is told straightforwardly, with understated yet impressive visuals and effective music.
From the director of La La Land, this film is not a musical, though it similarly features a contrast between the imperfections of life and moments of humanity and wonder.
Lens on emotions
The film explores this with Ryan Gosling’s acting – as usual, he’s brilliant at playing stoic, understated characters, yet somehow conveying subtle emotional nuances – and Linus Sandgren’s hand-held cinematography. The camera movement perhaps hints at Armstrong’s emotional state, as it’s normally steady with a little bit of shakiness, which could indicate his stoic demeanour yet his struggles to process the deaths of people he cares about over the course of the story.
For the space flight sequences, the camera shakes about within the cockpit as Armstrong and his fellow astronauts bravely face the odds, creating an effective sense of intensity.
As Christians, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. So he’s with us in everything: the sorrows, the challenges and the wonder (c.f. Romans 8.37-39, 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18).
The film contains brief strong language and some extended intense sequences; as well as flashing lights.
