The First Man: Achievements of Neil Armstrong

Damien Chazelle does not aim only for the moon in “First Man,” his visually thrilling film about Neil Armstrong, the first human to step onto the moon. He has his sights on an Oscar statuette, like the one he did not get for his delightful, romantic, joyful musical confection, “La La Land.” Ryan Gosling, “La La Land’s” star, again joins Chazelle, this time as Neil Armstrong, iron-jawed and so controlled he seems to have ice water in his veins. Gosling dials down his usual charisma — though he can do nothing to hide those baby blue eyes — to play the emotionally tight, brainy astronaut in a daring, glazed-over performance. He is an enigma, Chazelle’s Armstrong, silent even with his wife, Janet (“The Crown’s” Claire Foy in a performance that makes up for her husband’s emotional deficit), haunted by the ghost of his 2-year-old daughter who died of a brain tumor.

You might think a movie like “First Man” would have few surprises: Apollo 11 blasted off, landed on the moon, then returned safely. But you would be wrong. The film’s opening will have you sharing Armstrong’s pre-NASA experience testing an X-15 aircraft as it shakes violently, rolls dangerously, then touches the beginning of space, higher than it was designed to go. Once Armstrong joins the space program — really a feverish competition with the Soviets to reach the moon first, backed by John F. Kennedy’s shrewd call for an American win after the Soviets’ early triumph with their satellites, and by billions of Congressionally-appropriated dollars — we share the perils, failures, even astronaut deaths in the lead up to Apollo 11. As long as “First Man” concentrates on the space program it remains airborne, full of ambition and exhilaration. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren uses different film for sections of the movie — 16 mm, 35 mm, 70 mm IMAX — for dizzying effects. Justin Hurwitz’s amazing score blasts behind the glorious extraterrestrial images. When it focuses on Armstrong the private man, who was largely inscrutable in real life, however, it loses energy.

Of course not all Americans backed the Apollo program. Many viewed it as a waste of money that could be better spent on fixing our problems on Earth. Late in the movie, when the Apollo program seems to be tumbling out of control, a montage of protests and protesters is backed by a rendition of activist-musician Gil Scott-Heron’s satirical “Whitey on the Moon.” But the landing of Apollo’s lunar module, the Eagle, in dangerous trouble up to the final minutes, is quietly stunning. For those who have criticized the film for not showing Armstrong plant the American flag in lunar dust, perhaps they missed the flag we see behind Eagle. All this controlled by computers with less power and memory than today’s smartest cell phones. A marvel indeed.