Damien Chazelle’s FIRST MAN paints Armstrong’s ascent to the Moon as an escape from grief and familial responsibility, the sensory brutality of its depiction of spaceflight casting the Gemini/Apollo astronauts as shellshocked soldiers in the cold war of the space race. I liked it. Interesting to see the moon landing portrayed in such somber shades, rather than triumphal, underscoring its near-impossibility in the face of humanity’s broken-ness (apart from Armstrong and his wife Janet, portrayed with grace and nuance by Claire Foy, the humans in the movie feel almost incidental).
