FIRST MAN : APOLLO ECLIPSE NOW

Is it weird that Damien Chazelle’s last film, LA LA LAND was pipped at the post for Best Picture Oscar by a film called MOONLIGHT and now he’s made FIRST MAN, the story of the first human to alight on the moon?

Weird or not, Chazelle’s film is again Oscar worthy, re-teaming with his LA LA LAND leading man, Ryan Gosling portraying Neil Armstrong, the small stepping, giant leaping astronaut, who left his footprint in history July 20, 1969.

From LA LA LAND to lunar landing seems a giant leap for Chazelle, but he takes it in his prodigious stride as a film maker of immaculate choices.

Not since Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film, THE RIGHT STUFF, has there been a more beautifully realised study of the space race, the enterprise and endurance of engineers and astronauts to put a man into the Sea of Tranquillity.

Looking at the decade long effort to accomplish a mission promised by John F Kennedy, the film focuses on Neil Armstrong, his professional and family life in the dangerous high stakes business of test piloting and astronaut training.

Like his previous films, WHIPLASH and LA LA LAND, Chazelle is fascinated with the cost of achievement, although in FIRST MAN it’s personal and public, physical and fiscal.

The Apollo Project, and its predecessors Mercury and Gemini, was astronomical in monetary terms, and with a war raging in Vietnam, coffers were drained at the expense of social services and civil rights.

Ryan Gosling is fabulous as Armstrong, a taciturn, focused individual who goes through the hell of losing his daughter and colleagues while keeping his sights firmly on the heavens.

Claire Foy continues to cement her career as Armstrong’s wife, Janet, down to earth mother, supportive but fearful of her husband’s ambitions.

There’s a stellar supporting cast too, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Cairan Hinds, Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin and Lukas Haas as Michael Collins.

Penned by Oscar winning scribe, Josh Singer based on the book by James Hansen, FIRST MAN is an exhilarating extravaganza of endeavour, set backs and achievement.

Like APOLLO 13, we know the outcome but it’s the extraordinary background that brings the exuberance and thrill and humanity to the experience.

FIRST MAN boasts first class production values, Linus Sandgren, who won the Oscar for LA LA LAND is lensing, Tom Cross, Oscar winning editor for WHIPLASH assembled the picture, and Justin Kurwitz, Oscar winner for LA LA LAND has composed an out of this world score.