Reviews for First Man are in but are La La Land
’s Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling set for Oscars’ glory with their Neil Armstrong moon landing biopic?
It sure seems like it.
The new film from Damien Chazelle, who was the youngest person ever to win the Best Director Academy Award earlier this year, follows Gosling’s Armstrong in the years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
The film also stars Claire Foy as Armstrong’s wife and Jason Clarke as Ed White, the first American to walk in space.
Here is a sampling of some of the reviews:
Variety: A movie so revelatory in its realism, so gritty in its physicality, that it becomes a drama of thrillingly hellbent danger and obsession.
Hollywood Reporter: This sober, contemplative picture has emotional involvement, visceral tension, and yes, even suspense, in addition to stunning technical craft.
Independent: This is a human story, remarkably well told.
Telegraph: Wisely, Chazelle has opted to leave spectacle to the blockbusters and instead aims for awe – which is related, but different, and harder to pull off.
The Wrap: When Armstrong climbs into Gemini 8 and it blasts off into the heavens, we've never felt this claustrophobia or listened to the creaking of the metal or felt the thrust of the rockets quite this way before in a movie.
Guardian: Chazelle tells Armstrong's story with certainty and verve.
Watch the latest trailer for First Man below and judge for yourself.
