Four years ago, director Damian Chazelle entered the limelight of Hollywood with the release of his critically acclaimed Whiplash. Whiplash earned the film a Best Picture nomination and J.K Simmons an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The success of Whiplash only increased anticipation for his second film, 2016’s La La Land. If Whiplash put Chazelle in the limelight, La La Land threw him into the forefront of Hollywood’s elite of young directors. The film earned Chazelle an Academy Award for Best Director, Emma Stone a win for Best Actress, and the film another nomination for Best Picture. For anyone that follows the site regularly and listens to the Reel Chronicles podcast, you know just how much I adore La La Land and view it as one of my favorite films of the decade, along with one of my favorite musicals of all time. I was quite intrigued when Chazelle’s third film would have the young director remove himself from musically driven films and enter the biopic world with his latest film, First Man.
Chazelle’s filmmaking, similarly to his first two films, showcases his ability to remove himself from delivering cliché Hollywood happy endings and being tackle genres and scenarios with grit and realism. He continues the trend in one of 2018’s best films, First Man. The biopic tells the story of astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and the efforts it took NASA and the US to land on the moon in 1969. Unlike the clichéd space film, Chazelle takes a different approach with First Man and disposes with the heroic film mythologies typically used in biopics and sheds light on the true struggle of the mission and its astronauts before it even enters space.
Chazelle pulls back on opening the rabbit hole of telling the story of just the mission and focuses on telling a story about Armstrong’s struggle. First Man stresses throughout that the feat of putting a man on the mood was pulled off not by larger-than-life figures, but by groups of ordinary people who each paid an incredible cost.
It’s a breathtaking piece of filmmaking, filled with some of the most intense portrayals of space flight ever put onscreen. Linus Sandgren’s cinematography in First Man is a marvel. Sandgren explains on an episode of the Studio Daily podcast about his approach to shooting this film as opposed to La La Land. “When you do a documentary about a person and you’re there in their house with them and they’re sad or they’re talking, maybe you don’t walk in there and stand in the perfect camera position. You can’t really get the perfect angles. That in itself creates some sort of humbleness to the characters; you are a little respectful and leave them a little alone to watch them from a distance or a little bit from behind.” Sandgren’s camerawork brings an added feel of authenticity as he adopts an approach that often poses the question as to whether these scenes are real or previously unseen NASA footage. Sandgren should be preparing his acceptance speech as he is a clear front-runner to win his second Academy Award in just a few short months.
Chazelle’s maturity as a director is on full display in First Man. Any doubts fans might have had that he couldn’t direct a film outside of music inspired works can be put to rest. A central theme is prominent in this film and in Chazelle’s earlier works, La La Land and Whiplash. They all share protagonists that are driven to succeed, almost to the point of mad obsession. Mia, Sebastian, Andrew Neiman, and Neil Armstrong are singularly focused, ambitious and comfortable with any level of sacrifice in order to meet and reach their desired goals.
Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy are each other’s yin and yang throughout First Man. While Janet (Foy) is expressive and makes no bones about expressing her feelings, Gosling’s take on Neil is subtle and focused on expressing his true feelings with pauses and inner self-thought. While Foy is the focus coming out as the front-runner for Best Supporting Actress, I am firmly behind Gosling as the film’s standout performance because while he wasn’t too showy, his subtle moments especially on the moon and another moment I can’t spoil here have both stood with me long after the film ended. It’s one of my favorite performances of the year.
Justin Hurwitz teams up once again with Chazelle on the music. While he did not outdo his La La Land score, he puts together a score that captures every key scene and moment of this journey. Similarly to “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme” in La La Land, Hurwtiz creates “Armstrong Cabin” to stay with you through key moments of the film. Another notable sound is “Docking Waltz” which helps enhance the beauty and magic of space during the moon landing and is crucial to that impactful moment in the film. Another Academy Award and win may be coming Hurwitz’ way.
Earlier in the year, my colleagues at Reel Talk all predicted First Man would be my number one film of the year. Two weeks ago, I wrote my A Star is Born review expecting that no film would surpass it as 2018’s best film. Yesterday, I realized that I am as predictable in my old age as my colleagues previously stated.
First Man is more than just a technical marvel. It is a film that truly captures the struggle and journey of not just America’s race to space but a man’s sacrifice to reach his ultimate goal of walking on the moon. First Man cements Chazelle’s place as not only Hollywood’s best young director but one of the best directors working today.
Reel Talk gives First Man 4 Reels
