If you or someone you know has had the pleasure of catching Rashida Jones' recent Netflix documentary, “Quincy,” then one might summon to mind a key moment where his famous song, “Fly Me To The Moon,” played aboard the Apollo 10, the renowned lunar orbit flight which all but guaranteed the authorization of the Apollo 11, a.k.a. the flight that actually took us to the frickin’ moon. Or so they say anyway… Conspiracy theories aside, director Damien Chazelle had been eyeing Ryan Gosling for the role of earth’s first ever moonwalker for years, though it wasn’t until after being offered “First Man” that the actor serendipitously became involved in Chazelle’s Oscar-winning musical, “La La Land.” The challenge here, however, unlike Chazelle’s previous more personal works, was that the audience knew Apollo 11’s ending — so how best to convey the right amount of narrative suspense? Evidently via sheer, unadulterated and unfettered carnage. Damien, ever intent to inform and scold our still-skeptical populace, presents viewers with every nightmare scenario available, and as scores of dead bodies begin to rack up, a divided U.S. remains gripped, as much as it remains today, with the same divisive temperament that nearly imploded the space race decades ago. Even in the face of a calamitous series of events (one after the bloody next), where astronauts are either burned alive or ejected from their spacecraft like tiny rag dolls, Armstrong endures, as does his family, and it isn’t for naught. In return for his heroism, a bitterly polarized nation is momentarily healed, and the world holds its breath as it witnesses the impossible in real time, playing out on live television. Not bad for 1969.
Filmed in three distinct triptychs, the first in 16mm (before pivoting to 2 perf 35mm and IMAX for the finale), Chazelle's third picture has quite a lot riding on it. It's the Oscar winning director’s first major project since “La La Land” catapulted him into superstardom, and perhaps due to his upset win, “First Man” eschews the hyper-stylized and glitzy disposition of the auteur’s former portfolio. Opting instead for a gritty, even cinema verité look inside the life and psyche of a distressed father who risks his life and his family’s well-being, not for fame or bragging rights (the film demonstrates Armstrong was never NASA’s first choice for the landing), but because he’s the only one left alive who can adequately heed the call. Deliberately layered within DP Linus Sandgren’s grimy, Zapruder-like cinematography, the weight of Steven Spielberg as EP also wears heavily on the final cut, and the gut-wrenching sequences in space ultimately fall flat until the film’s rousing final 40 minutes. Chazelle's greatest foresight here however, was retaining “La La Land” composer Justin Hurwitz — he has grown so much in such a short period of time, he could well be Hollywood’s next Carter Burwell, Hans Zimmer or even Thomas Newman, as evidenced by his palatial space track, "The Landing."
During this fraught and turbulent era in American politics, a film like "First Man" (with a title so trigger-happy you’d almost expect the studio to alter it), got very, very lost among the weekend box office crowd, trailing far behind Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” remake and Ruben Fleischer’s "Venom." “Man” only managed to eke out a measly $16 million on a $59 million budget, which could reflect the reality that Americans are no longer invested in boomer culture, a time when the country (theoretically) held firmer as one. Chazelle’s film also contorts itself to illustrate how brutally contested the 1960s were in America, including a welcome, but ultimately mishandled homage to late activist and spoken-word artist Gil Scott Heron; who criticizes the space race not for its symbolism but for its unrestrained indulgence. Hell, even the right-wing hate machine pounced on the film’s first teaser, arguing that the American Flag wasn’t featured “prominently enough” (if only they could see how small it’s actually featured in the final scene). And yes, maybe this is a long-term overcorrection on behalf of Chazelle’s ‘whitewashing’ and ‘mansplaining’ criticisms from “La La Land,” but it remains demonstrative of today's ire and not at all an oversight. Perhaps the only thing we can agree on as an audience and as a nation is that Buzz Aldrin was always a miserable, self-absorbed S-O-B. Always.
"FIRST MAN" a.k.a. “Hurtle Me To The Moon” Rated PG-13. Running time: 2 hours 21 minutes.
