Damien Chazelle will stow you in the cockpit and will literally wobble you, wobble you till you feel claustrophobic. He’ll make you thud, drop your jaw in awe and yes, will give you goosebumps. The close, compact cockpit will make you feel as if you’re the pilot of the Apollo 11 itself. And the close ups of the film are contrasting. Everything is so close. Again, the claustrophobic element. Smart work Damien. The direction tone of this film is what protrudes it. The camera is panning all the time. There are very few scenes where you’ll see that the camera is still, or is inert. It is because of the film’s subject. The whole film is panning the way spacecraft pans. So basically, the whole film is Neil and his cockpit.
Despite of such unwonted direction tone, still there are paucity of many stuffs. For eg. the pace. The pace is sedate and it gets really sedate in between. Pauses are needed, but pauses for eternity are not needed. The screenplay got kinda shaky in between and no one really stood out in the performance area. Everybody is good but no one jutted out. Ryan Gosling did a wonderful job, his coolness, his calmness it is unbelievable. You might even get vexed in between due the coolness of Ryan, but Damien didn’t flunk to substantiate his calmed trait. He justified his whole character at the end. The last few minutes of the film is where his calmness comes into play.
The last few minutes justified his whole calm character. Still, I feel Tom Hardy as a pilot, even after playing a miniature role in Dunkirk, did a better job than Ryan. Maybe I’m saying this because I’m a big fan of Tom, but still, this is what I feel. Claire Foy as Neil’s wife Janet is propitious. There’s this one scene where she shook me. The scene where Janet gets infuriated of Neil and edicts him to talk to their kids. That moved me. Rest of the cast is good, they’re there. The thing is, there is not much scope for other characters. The film is Neil, Neil and Neil. The whole film is like his perspective. First Man, the title cannot be more quintessential.
Even the background score didn’t hit me much. Unlike Interstellar’s background score, this didn’t struck my chords. The cinematography is virtuoso. As I said you’ll precisely feel as if you’re watching the sky, the Moon, the Earth, everything. Hats off!
The only thing that makes this film disparate than the other films of this genre is the experience of the 1969’s first moon mission. He has hardly shown you the exterior of the spacecraft. It’s just the pilots and the cockpit. As I said, you’ll feel you’re right there. I also adore the daring of the director. Shooting the film with such panning. It’s been shot with so much instability but his whole plan didn’t fail, actually, it added as an advantage.
Overall it’s a great film, which will move you many times but with a slow pace and not-so-striking performances.