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First Man (12A)
JJJJ For all the potential patriotic fervour the story of America’s victory in the space race offers, First Man sets itself the more noble and difficult task of grappling with an introverted hero whose stoicism, humility, decency and quiet intelligence are at odds with the sort of charmingly reckless and maverick behaviour beloved by movies about great adventurers. As Chazelle’s film has it, Neil Armstrong’s introspection was in place long before NASA selected him to command Apollo 11 — and it was intensified by the never-articulated grief he felt over the tragic death of his infant daughter, Karen, just as he was being recruited for the space programme. The durability and fragility of human life provides the thematic through line for the film, which tracks the progress of Armstrong over the next eight years, right up to, and slightly beyond, the lunar landing and though this can make the film (and Armstrong) seem emotionally stilted, especially as we see the toll it’s taking on his wife, Janet (Claire Foy), the payoff when we arrive on the moon is worth it. Mandy (18)
JJJ Midway through this warped, psychedelic, 1980s-set revenge movie, Nicolas Cage retrieves a shotgun-cum-crossbow from an old acquaintance (1980s action staple Bill Duke) and gleefully announces he needs it for “hunting Jesus freaks”. In an earlier hallucinogenic rampage, said freaks killed his wife, the eponymous Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), and Cage’s Red means to exact bloody vengeance on Linus Roache’s demon-summoning cult leader and his Lsd-fried followers. All of which sounds like manna from heaven if you’re a dedicated Cage fan. And yet, as enjoyable as Cage is here, the studied weirdness of Panos Cosmatos’s sophomore feature is often as trying as it is transcendent. ■