Movie review: First Man takes a giant leap toward greatness
First Man killed my dreams.
In the 49 years since humans landed on the moon, no film has done more to show just how bold those early space missions were. When I say bold, I mean utterly terrifying.
And with that, I am putting aside my long-held dream of being an astronaut. Well, not until space travel has business class.
Director Damien Chazelle's use of handheld camera takes you into the claustrophobic cockpits of those early rocket launches and makes you feel every terrifying rumble.
The science may have been advanced for the time, but this film shows each mission to be little more than wearing a posh snorkel, being strapped into a tin lunchbox and lashed to the top of a giant explosive.
First Man even opens on a test flight where Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) is a hair's breadth from turning his jet into a cosmic coffin.
They were brave souls sent into space using little more than hope and amazing equations.
There is more to this than immersive, gripping tension though.
It is easy to say that First Man has set controls for a direct flight to Oscar. Yet, it does bring a much needed quieter, human element to the proceedings.
Gosling's take on Armstrong is a man whose emotions are locked so far from the surface, the distance may as well be from the Earth to the Moon. The problem here, if it is a problem, is that at times, it is too reminiscent of his taciturn character from 2011's Drive.
Armstrong is a cold rock around which the more emotive cast are satellites.
Claire Foy plays his wife Janet, who hopes he comes home in more ways than one.
You feel her frustration at wanting to support Neil, even in the face of growing public animosity towards the Nasa project, the spectre of fiery doom or indeed a spouse who is more astronaut than husband or father.
As for the Nasa family, Jason Clarke as Edward Higgins White embodies the classic 60s astronaut look.
Surprisingly, Corey Stoll plays Buzz Aldrin (the second man on the moon) as tactless and only tolerated sociably. It remains to be seen what the real Aldrin thinks about that portrayal.
The other major character in First Man is death.
From the Armstrongs losing their two-year-old daughter Karen - an event that maroons Neil in emotionless space - to the brutal reality that for the men of the Apollo missions - and their families - just the slightest thing out of place could bring death.
It will actually help if you don’t read up on the Apollo missions, though obviously, they make it. to the moon.
At times incredibly intimate in terms of proximity - the camera is often in close orbit to Gosling's face - you are also taken on some amazing journeys.
In fact, such is the tension of the launch sequences, especially in Imax, that even with historical fact telling you otherwise, you will still find yourself wondering if the crew survives the blast-off.
You will them to succeed but not because of this great achievement of mankind. That's for another film. You're willing them to succeed in the hope that ARmstrong finds that key that will allow him to escape his own capsule of grief.
And with it being a Chazelle film, the force behind such music-driven hits such as Whiplash and La La Land, music plays a significant role.
After watching First Man, you will want to know what that tune is, the one that accompanies two moments where Armstrong allows some light to break through his emotion eclipse.
It's called Lunar Rhapsody and you can hear it below...
RATING: 3.5
MOVIE: First Man
STARRING: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll
DIRECTOR: Damien Chazelle
THE SKINNY: Based on the book by James R. Hansen, this is the riveting story of Nasa’s mission to land a man on the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong (Gosling) and the years 1961 to 1969 and exploring the sacrifices and cost to him and America.
RATING: PG
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Movie reviews: Lizzie, BlacKkKlansman
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Kristen Stewart plays the family's live-in maid Bridget Sullivan, who develops a forbidden relationship with Lizzie.
Director Craig William Macneill has great material to work with. There is a gruesome homicide to play out, and many layers to peel back involving the taboo love between two women of different social status back in 19th-century America.
But the film is far from attaining "feminist flick" status.
Its slow pace, lack of development in Lizzie and Bridget's relationship and poor execution of the central axe-murdering sequence lead to insipid results.
The opposite can be said about Sevigny and Stewart's sizzling chemistry, with sexual tension oozing from the longing looks they cast each other.
Watch Lizzie for the final bits of gore and cinematographer Noah Greenberg's beautiful visuals, but axe it if you're looking for something with depth.
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BLACKKKLANSMAN (NC16)
Based on the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first African-American cop in the Colorado Springs police department, this comedy-drama shows how, through a series of bizarre accidents and mistaken identities, he managed to infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and righteously messes with it from the inside.
BlacKkKlansman is set in the 1970s, but director Spike Lee draws strong parallels between past and present by taking on a number of current burning issues and topics.
Although it is an effective cinematic sermon on racism, it doesn't reach its full potential due to the conflict between two main points of view - that of a black man who has chosen to be a detective and a black woman who cannot imagine that choice - which are left unresolved.
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