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Critics Consensus: First Man uses a personal focus to fuel a look back at a pivotal moment in human history - and takes audiences on a soaring dramatic journey along the way.
Critic Consensus: First Man uses a personal focus to fuel a look back at a pivotal moment in human history - and takes audiences on a soaring dramatic journey along the way.
All Critics (393) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (343) | Rotten (50)
This is a movie that - flag or no flag - doesn't need to take a political stance to make a political statement. ●
As long as First Man is airborne, it's a marvel. I can't recall another movie that conveyed with such punch the perils and exhilarations of spaceflight. It's when the film is earthbound that it falls down.
Ryan Gosling's impassive visage must have the gravitational pull of a black hole, because Chazelle can't seem to keep his camera from being pulled loose from its moorings and drawn in thisclose for more than one or two scenes at a time.
What the movie does do is give you a hair-raising feeling of what it really felt like inside the space craft, where every hour was life-threatening and the outcome was always perilous.
"First Man" never quite connects at a gut level. For a story that shoots for the moon, it has trouble leaving the ground.
Most movies aim to take us out of ourselves. This one goes to majestic extremes.
Bragging rights at what cost
From the very first second, Neil's story is brought to life in such a way that not only inspire you to be your best self, but will also educate you in a way you have perhaps never experienced before.
Chazelle somehow tunes us in to not only the precarious trauma of mankind's first journey to the moon, but also the precarious trauma of mankind's shared journey through life.
Handsome, technically astonishing awards contender.
Damien Chazelle is master manipulator of cinema. He knows exactly what to do with a camera to make you feel like you are physically experiencing this film from the astronaut perspective directly from your set. It's cinematically beautiful
While the film had some great thematic elements (specifically the moments in space), the same things that were felt toward the beginning and end of the film, did not span across the film's entirety.
There is, about society, a nonchalance about things that involve risk and take effort outside of ourselves: "Aww, that wasn't nothing!" The point of this retelling of Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon is to remove that nonchalance, and so we are treated to a close-up look of the extreme effort and undeniable risk, and the creeping toll that took on the souls involved. Stripped away are the token patriotism and grandstanding, flag-waving, and we are left with a singular human achievement that touches our lives still. An intelligent and understanding effort.
Super Reviewer
Sure, there was The Right Stuff about the beginning of manned space exploration and there is Apollo 13 of course, but it comes as a bit of a surprise there hasn't been a movie about Neil Armstrong yet. But here it is and it very evenly balances a very private family drama and the most intense and realistic space action on film to date. It starts out with quite the emotional bang and doesn't let go over the admittedly long running time. The acting is top notch and the soundtrack one of the best of the year. Great work by everyone involved.
Relying on a beautiful score, an amazing technology and an intelligent direction that emphasizes the character's lack of anything to anchor him in his life, this is a poignant character study about a man who wants to isolate himself not only from his family but from the rest of the world.
This is a hard left turn for Damien Chazelle, who is arguably the best director working today in my opinion. Completely different from his previous films, it seems his goal with this one is to impress rather than entertain, and he succeeds in that. The directing, acting, cinematography and personal story creates what is probably the most realistic space movie ever made, but at a price. There are some boring stretches between occasional moments of humor or intrigue. The monetary, physical and personal cost of space travel and its difficulties are illustrated perfectly, but it doesn't make for the most exciting movie.
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