3SMReviews: First Man
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Damien Chazelle teams up with Ryan Gosling in First Man, a very feelings-based telling of Neil Armstrong’s story. Both Gosling and Claire Foy (as Janet Armstrong) are very good as the stoic couple who never thought they would be public figures. This movie has the White Guys in Suits* problem, and I would have rather watched it with subtitles as the dialogue gets lost in places amid the very industrial sound design, but I loved this movie’s focus on a man with a lot of feelings who never lets any of them out.
Verdict: Recommended
Cost: $4.00
Where watched: at the Academy Theater with S. North and an audience that wandered in and out of the theater during the movie, plus a guy behind us who commented loudly and often.**
*It was very hard to get names of the supporting cast and match them with faces. Being the 60’s, there were a lot of similar looking men in shirtsleeves with ties. This movie also had the same problem as in Lincoln: there were so many “Who is that guy?” moments. Patrick Fugit I recognized from the get-go, but there was also the guy from Girls, the guy from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the guy from Mudbound, the guy from Inception, the guy from the first Ant-Man movie, etc. etc. etc.
** “Space junk!” was perhaps my favorite of his eruptions.***
***He didn’t bug me tremendously, as it reminded me of when S. North and I saw the preview for this film and it so annoyed an audience member he loudly proclaimed, “WHY ARE THEY TRYING TO MAKE IT TENSE? We already KNOW what happens!” Both of us laughed.
