I feel like most space movies (whether fictional or “based on a true story”) typically make going to and being in space seem cool. Sure, many of them feature scenes where the characters experience some sort of danger because they are in space, but aside from those perilous moments (some of which can last for most of the film, such as in Gravity or Apollo 13), there is usually at least one scene of “isn’t being in space cool?” First Man, on the other hand, seems to convey just how terrifying and dangerous the early space missions were. Every second that you spend in space in First Man is tense, and it makes the viewer realize that astronauts are always only moments away from death as something always has the chance of going catastrophically wrong. For a movie that’s based on well-known historical events, I still found it very suspenseful. Most of this suspense comes from three elements: the sound design, the set design, and the cinematography.
Again, comparing First Man to many other “space movies,” I feel like most launch scenes in other films focus on the adventure and grandeur of the takeoff. However, the launch scenes in this film typically convey the point of view of the astronauts in the cockpit: your hear the creaking of all the metal parts, the explosion of the rockets, and the camera shakes as you see the looks of discomfort and trepidation on the astronauts’ faces. Additionally, much of the camerawork in this film allows you to see various aspects of the spacecraft cockpits up close, and you realize how low-tech these ships were (at least by modern standards).
The acting in First Man was also phenomenal. While Ryan Gosling portrays Neil Armstrong as being very stoic for most of the movie (one critic jokingly referred to this as “Stoicism: The Movie”), in the moments when Neil does allow his emotion to take over, Ryan shows off just how strong of an actor he is. However, the real show-stealer in this movie is Claire Foy, who portrays Neil’s wife, Janet. If you’ve ever watched the Oscars, you’ll know that for each actor/actress nominated for an acting award, they’ll show a brief scene from the movie they were nominated for which typically highlights one of their best scenes of acting in that film. If Claire gets nominated for her role in First Man (and she definitely deserves to), I honestly feel like they could use any scene from this movie for her acting highlight moment. Every scene that she’s in screams “give me an Oscar!”
Lastly, I have to remark about how amazing the score for this film was. I wasn’t very far into the movie before I thought to myself: “I can’t wait to go home and listen to this soundtrack.” This definitely isn’t one of those movies where the music just seems to fade into the background, typically unnoticed unless you’re paying attention. Rather, in several scenes when the music is soft and subdued, it still stands out with a somewhat haunting melody. And in scenes where the music is used to build tension, it often blurs with the sound effects, sometimes to the point where you’re not sure if what you are hearing is supposed to be music, or the diegetic sound that the characters are experiencing. For my fellow film score lovers, I offer up the following sample to whet your appetite:
To sum all this up: First Man is a fantastic film, and everyone should see it. I would not be surprised if it gets a slew of Oscar nominations come January.
Venom was goofy, dumb, and cheesy, but also surprisingly fun and surprisingly funny. Venom is far from an original movie—there’s nothing in this movie that you haven’t seen before. In fact, it feels like a weird mishmash of aspects and tropes from other superhero, sci-fi, and horror movies. The writing seems particularly lazy, with the story being constantly moved forward by a series of convenient events.
The McKoo Review 