Starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Pilot Neil Armstrong throws himself into his work on the pioneering Apollo Moon mission, but sometimes the greater achievements are accomplished from the inside.

Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning La La Land is an excellent movie, delivering on so many levels, and yet it may not be quite the movie that you’re expecting. In the way that film critic often says that Jaws isn’t about a shark, First Man is not about mankind’s first steps on the Moon. The Apollo programme is the narrative on which the story is hung, but ultimately the movie is about Armstrong, his relationship with his family and how he handles what life throws at him.

As you’d expect, Ryan Gosling is excellent as Armstrong, stoic and internal, displaying the US equivalent of the British stiff upper lip and refusing to externalise just how he’s feeling. Claire Foy also impressed as his wife Janet, desperate that her children know what peril their father is potentially facing, but living at a time where so much is unsaid.

The visual effects are stunning, whether the rocket launch or the landing on the Moon. The ‘Eagle has landed’ and ‘One small step for man’ moments might have you punching the air, helped immeasurably by Justin Hurwitz’ score which throws in 60s Americana lounge music, theremin and epic.

Verdict: This isn’t The Right Stuff, and neither is it the Wrong Stuff. A gripping drama about a man who achieved the greatest possible thing, but would probably have traded it all to change one thing. 8/10

Nick Joy