From the director of the near-perfect Whiplash, and one of my all-time favorites La La Land comes the Neil Armstrong biopic that I didn't know I wanted, but am grateful to have. Damien Chazelle strays from his musical roots and brings us a fantastic retelling of Armstrong's journey to the moon.
Armstrong is played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling. I've heard people have lukewarm reactions to Gosling's performance because of how constrained it is emotionally, and I find that pretty ridiculous. From everything I've heard, Armstrong internalized a lot of his emotions and while to some that may make him hard to connect to I had the opposite reaction. I tend to internalize a lot of things myself so seeing how well Gosling portrayed the emotionally detached nature of Armstrong really connected with me, and I find it a lot more impressive than someone giving an emotionally loud performance. His acting fits the film well, as despite being such a grand story it is told in a way that feels small at times. Neil's wife Janet Armstrong is played by Claire Foy. I've heard people naming this a front runner for best supporting actress and that lead to me being a bit underwhelmed. Foy is good in the role and has one or two really strong moments, but for a lot of the film she failed to impress me. It's a good performance just not one I personally see as Oscar-caliber. Some supporting performances I did really love however were Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, and Jason Clarke as Edward Higgins White. Slayton is one of the men in charge of a lot of the missions leading up to Apollo 11, and Chandler gave the role a lot of much needed gravitas. Edward is one of the men training with Armstrong and the chemistry between Clarke and Gosling builds up really well. I usually have mixed feelings on Clarke but he transformed into his character effectively and really impressed me.
I think with a few more films of the quality he has delivered lately, we will see Damien Chazelle as one of the best directors of this generation. He tells this story magnificently. The film is long, clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, and it is quite slow. However, Chazelle builds the film up with constant tension and emotion, so while you can feel the length of the film it is never a bad thing. I could watch several hours of this movie, that's how well he tells this story. Chazelle teams up once again with frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz as the film's composer. There are a lot of interesting musical choices, and I found they all worked really well. The sound design as a whole is phenomenal. The takeoff scenes are loud and rattly, throwing you right into the action of the scene, but there is also a lot of fantastic use of silence within the film, especially during the moon landing. I love effective uses of silence in a film, and it's done really well here. I have some slight flaws unfortunately. There are some editing choices in the first half of the film where it cuts to Armstrong's family. Those scenes might work for some people but I found that at least a couple minutes of that could have been cut, as some of them don't have much narrative strength. I also have a slight issue with the cinematography. A lot of the camerawork is great. There is a very slight graininess that surprisingly does a lot to capture the feeling of the time the film takes place, and a lot of handheld camera helps with that. The shaky nature of the handheld camerawork is incredible during the takeoff sequences, but there were moments where it bothered me. Some scenes of Neil and his family are noticeably shaky, and while the handheld camera does make the film feel more of its time, the shakiness gets a bit annoying at times. This is mostly an issue in the first half, as we get a lot more of the exciting stuff later on. Speaking of exciting stuff, the final twenty minutes or so of the film are nothing short of perfect. From the cinematography to the sound design to the direction, the ending is magnificent.
So I have some small flaws but the more I've thought about it the more I can look past those. Gosling gives one of the year's best performances, and Chazelle delivers another incredible film.
Rating: 4.5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
Armstrong is played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling. I've heard people have lukewarm reactions to Gosling's performance because of how constrained it is emotionally, and I find that pretty ridiculous. From everything I've heard, Armstrong internalized a lot of his emotions and while to some that may make him hard to connect to I had the opposite reaction. I tend to internalize a lot of things myself so seeing how well Gosling portrayed the emotionally detached nature of Armstrong really connected with me, and I find it a lot more impressive than someone giving an emotionally loud performance. His acting fits the film well, as despite being such a grand story it is told in a way that feels small at times. Neil's wife Janet Armstrong is played by Claire Foy. I've heard people naming this a front runner for best supporting actress and that lead to me being a bit underwhelmed. Foy is good in the role and has one or two really strong moments, but for a lot of the film she failed to impress me. It's a good performance just not one I personally see as Oscar-caliber. Some supporting performances I did really love however were Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, and Jason Clarke as Edward Higgins White. Slayton is one of the men in charge of a lot of the missions leading up to Apollo 11, and Chandler gave the role a lot of much needed gravitas. Edward is one of the men training with Armstrong and the chemistry between Clarke and Gosling builds up really well. I usually have mixed feelings on Clarke but he transformed into his character effectively and really impressed me.
I think with a few more films of the quality he has delivered lately, we will see Damien Chazelle as one of the best directors of this generation. He tells this story magnificently. The film is long, clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, and it is quite slow. However, Chazelle builds the film up with constant tension and emotion, so while you can feel the length of the film it is never a bad thing. I could watch several hours of this movie, that's how well he tells this story. Chazelle teams up once again with frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz as the film's composer. There are a lot of interesting musical choices, and I found they all worked really well. The sound design as a whole is phenomenal. The takeoff scenes are loud and rattly, throwing you right into the action of the scene, but there is also a lot of fantastic use of silence within the film, especially during the moon landing. I love effective uses of silence in a film, and it's done really well here. I have some slight flaws unfortunately. There are some editing choices in the first half of the film where it cuts to Armstrong's family. Those scenes might work for some people but I found that at least a couple minutes of that could have been cut, as some of them don't have much narrative strength. I also have a slight issue with the cinematography. A lot of the camerawork is great. There is a very slight graininess that surprisingly does a lot to capture the feeling of the time the film takes place, and a lot of handheld camera helps with that. The shaky nature of the handheld camerawork is incredible during the takeoff sequences, but there were moments where it bothered me. Some scenes of Neil and his family are noticeably shaky, and while the handheld camera does make the film feel more of its time, the shakiness gets a bit annoying at times. This is mostly an issue in the first half, as we get a lot more of the exciting stuff later on. Speaking of exciting stuff, the final twenty minutes or so of the film are nothing short of perfect. From the cinematography to the sound design to the direction, the ending is magnificent.
So I have some small flaws but the more I've thought about it the more I can look past those. Gosling gives one of the year's best performances, and Chazelle delivers another incredible film.
Rating: 4.5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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