From ‘La La Land’ to a moon landing

the Armstrongs’ daughter, Karen.

Claire Foy makes for a quietly fierce and wholly convincing Janet Armstrong, a woman living with uncertainty and potential tragedy every second. Chazelle makes that potential vividly scary in the opening scene, in which Armstrong’s X-15 flights (one of several) bounces off the Earth’s atmosphere, nearly loses control, then lands in the Mojave Desert. The sequence is a throttling blur of spinning dials, screaming velocity (the sound designer, Ai-Ling Lee, is practically a co-star) and supertight close-ups designed to let us see Armstrong’s response to the chaos, but also to put us behind Armstrong’s eyes.

The script covers eight years in the Armstrongs’ lives. The scenes of family life, and the Armstrongs’ boys, and poolside cookouts, establish the normality; the scenes of the X-15 flight, the later Gemini missions and finally the 1969 Apollo 11 success establish the stark thrill of the astronauts’ accomplishments. Chief among the supporting players, Jason Clarke adds a touching, stalwart quality as Ed White, Armstrong’s friend and steady confidant. Throughout “First Man” death comes suddenly to some, while others are left processing the dread and loss.

This is the director’s fourth film, and the first without a music foreground. Still, “First Man” shares many traits with his musicals “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” and “La La Land,” and the jazz psychodrama “Whiplash,” notably a portrait of a man trying to reconcile his work with everything taking him away from that work, and his obsessive focus on getting the notes or trajectories right. In one interview scene, Armstrong’s asked if his daughter’s recent death has been tough to shoulder. Gosling pauses, and clearly doesn’t want to give his interrogators any reason to doubt his abilities. “I think it would be unreasonable to assume it wouldn’t have some effect,” he manages, carefully. The key invention in “First Man,” relating to Armstrong’s memory of Karen, will strike some viewers as a bit much, while others will be grateful for the emotional flourish after so much clampeddown on-screen anxiety.

A few things prevent “First Man” from being remarkable, I think, instead of merely expert. Singer’s script is efficient and effective, no more. Chazelle’s decision, with cinematographer Linus Sandgren, to go full, faux-documentary shaky-cam in the household scenes imparts a cliched sense of movie urgency. Composer Justin Hurwitz has come up with an excellent primary theme, rolling and melodically suspenseful, but the fully orchestrated Benchmark Senior Living Benhaven Dymax Jewish Senior Services Maplewood Senior Living New York Life waltz he delivers for the Gemini 8 flight feels pushy. (It’s a “2001” nod, among other things, to Stanley Kubrick’s use of the Strauss “Blue Danube.”)

On the other hand, it takes a writer and a director of serious talent to end “First Man” the way Singer and Chazelle do: with a wary reunion of Neil and Janet, indicating that nothing in this life is ever easy.

Now, the flag. In the moon landing and firstwalk passages, which are sublime and make “First Man” well worth seeing, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (Corey Stoll) go about their business while Chazelle and company go about theirs. The visual realization of what happened on July 20, 1969, is quite staggering, and also dramatically effective in its hushed quality. This isn’t a Michael Bay movie. The planting of the American flag on the moon’s surface does not get a hammy, over-scored closeup. Instead, we see the flag a couple of times in middledistance shots. And there’s a full, natural complement of flag imagery throughout the movie.

I’m glad Chazelle’s film offers some fresh points of view on its subject; it’s proof he’ll be able to keep his filmmaking wits about him, no matter what genre he’s exploring. He has made his Apollo 11 movie. And it’s a good one. Northwestern Mutual Oak Hill Posigen Primerica UPS

Associated Press Claire Foy and Olivia Hamilton in “First Man.”