First Man

La La Land alumnus Ryan Gosling teams up with director Damien Chazelle once again, this time, for a journey to the moon.

The cinematography in First Man is absolutely top-notch which makes the film pleasurable to watch all around. Audience will no doubt be pleased with this clear, relentless thoughtfulness that is consistently shown in Chazelle’s films.

In First Man, Chazelle chapters the years in Armstrong’s life circling his giant leap to the moon. There are family and marital drama in the midst of the space missions to flesh out Armstrong’s motivation and sacrifices. But even with the aggrandization of a magnificent score, it just wasn’t enough to keep the tension afloat. When the film goes through its story beats, déja vu is unavoidable by avid fans of the space genre. The characters are all there, the ambitious but tortured spaceman, the worried wife, the tight-lipped NASA employees. The leads, Gosling and Foy did the best with how little they were given. All that aside, the curiosity to witness Chazelle’s unfaltering execution of this time-tested story is somewhat enough to make this experience worthwhile.

With each feature-length addition to his résumé, Chazelle shows that he is clearly unafraid to tread into unexplored territory, demonstrating his razor-sharp vision each and every time. The technical achievement of First Man should make Chazelle proud in that respect. But as someone who has once been thoroughly impressed by Chazelle’s talent as a storyteller, one can only wish that First Man contains a stronger story.

(Originally posted on 17 Oct 2018 @projectunwrapped)