First Man

Das Rütteln, das Zischen, die Enge, der Druck – in den Flugszenen von FIRST MAN wird fast physisch spürbar, welches Vertrauen die Astronauten der Apollo-Mond-Mission damals in ihre analogen Blechbüchsen gehabt haben müssen. Auch über diese Erfahrungen hinaus will Chazelles Space-Race-Film keine patriotisch-pathetische Heldenfeier mit wehender Fahne auf dem Mond sein. Bei aller Bewunderung für das 1969 Mögliche fokussiert der LA LA LAND-Regisseur mit geerdeter Inszenierung und gedimmter Dramatik auf die (Familien-)Konflikte und Tragödien rund um den Astronauten Neil Armstrong, den Gosling als bescheidenen, recht verschlossenen Durchschnitts-Familienvater verkörpert. (Sascha Rettig) 

A space odyssey of a special kind: Contrary to what one might have expected, this film is not a larger-than-life story about the first landing on the moon, but rather an intimate portrait of the astronaut Neil Armstrong and his obsessive preparations for the Apollo 11 mission. It took him years to achieve this goal, and Hollywood wunderkind director Damien Chazelle stages the venture as a hell of a ride between rocket engines that don’t inspire confidence and Armstrong’s family, being rather worried about the undertaking. FIRST MAN is rooted pretty much in the intimate, Chazelle uses a handheld camera to cover the daily details of his protagonist in close-ups. Chazelle’s LA LA LAND buddy Ryan Gosling is acting even more stoic than we know him on screen. Much fuss was made about the fact that the Armstrong in the film – other than his real-life counterpart – doesn’t plant an American flag on the moon but Damien Chazelle’s reply was brief: the landing on the moon, the director said, was a global event, not an American one – or like Neil Armstrong had put it in his famous one-liner: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” (Bob Curtis)