Date: 2018
Director: Damien Chazelle
Actors/ Characters: Ryan Gosling/ Neil Armstrong, Claire Foy/ Janet Armstrong, Jason Clarke/ Ed White, Corey Stoll/ Buzz Aldrin
Summary: A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
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Review
I was pretty excited to go see this film, Damien Chazelle has impressed me massively over the last couple of years as a director. He seems to effortlessly produce films with complex characters and highly engaging stories from Whiplash to La La Land, sadly the same cannot be said about this film.
Everything about this film was lacking. Chazelle is a musically creative director but the score of this film was bland and monotonous almost mirroring the monotony of the film itself. The characters were hard to emotionally attach to, Neil was an unfeeling protagonist and his emotional backstory was explored at the start of the film but we never see a moment of climax for him emotionally which was frustrating and unfulfilling. Another element of Chazelle's films that normally impress me is the visuals- some of the shots were beautifully framed however the overall cinematography was irritating (too much shaky handheld was used) and seemed amateur.
For a mediocre film, the duration was far too long; spanning from 1961-1969 we see Neil's career and his training for this whole time and it's too much. Personally, I would have shown Neil's emotional backstory (following the death of his daughter) and then skipped the next three/ four years and focused solely on the Apollo missions rather than Neil's other training. Audiences don't care so much about the US space race other than the Apollo missions since that's where the successes lie. Another reason why I think the film feels so long is because we already know the story and the outcome before even watching the film, Neil Armstrong is one of the most iconic names in modern history and the film really didn't need to be made. Why Chazelle didn't make a film about Buzz Aldrin or the pilot (Michael Collins) who I didn't even know the name of prior to writing this review, I don't know? But it would probably have made for a much more interesting film.
I will admit that one element of the film I enjoyed was the feeling of claustrophobia and danger surrounding the space missions. I hate the thought of ever travelling into space so the extreme close ups/ closed framed shots of the astronauts in the shuttles plummeting into space really freaked me out and made me feel everything they were feeling.
Again, I appreciated one of the messages the film set out to send- even if I thought that that message fell flat, and that was the question of is the space programme worth the cost, in lives and money? The montage sequences of protestors/ news reports providing commentry on this question was one of my favourite sequences in the film and made me consider something I hadn't contemplated before. My favourite scene in the film was definitely the cabin explosion, it was just horrific to watch and the fact that we had that shot of outside the cabin with the smoke blowing out was so impactful. Sadly, the message relating to the cost was only half explored, I felt, and I wish the film had placed more emphasis on it.
Chazelle's excellent directorial craft is still evident in this film but I think a lot of things he attempted to do didn't work out so that's why it isn't my favourite film of his.
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