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First Man

2018

Damien Chazelle

Ryan Gosling, Jason Clarke, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler ...

6.4

18,249

Adventure. Drama A biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel.

	Author	Review
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	Chazelle’s 'First Man' on one hand marks a stunning filmmaking achievement (...) it also weathers turbulence in creating a needed connection between its intensely quiet hero and an audience.(…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"A docudrama in the most authentic and exciting sense of the word (...) [The] strategy is to make a movie so revelatory in its realism that it becomes a drama of thrillingly hellbent danger and obsession."	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"This ode to Armstrong films 'First Man' with a poet’s eye that cherishes the hush that comes when the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune	"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 (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"It gets almost everything right, but it’s also strangely underwhelming (...) There is a further leap beyond technical accomplishment that the film is too careful, too earthbound, to attempt."	NEU
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"A sober, contemplative picture [that] has emotional involvement, visceral tension, and yes, even suspense, in addition to stunning technical craft."	POS
United States	Michael Nordine IndieWire	"An anti-thriller of rare intensity, with lived-in performances from Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy (...) Revisits that famous story from a more intimate angle, even as it delivers a satisfying ride."	POS
United States	Jessica Kiang The Playlist	"An immersive, immaculately crafted, often spectacular and satisfyingly old-fashioned epic that may well become the definitive moon-landing movie."	POS
United States	Stephanie Zacharek Time	"A respectful movie; there’s never a moment when Chazelle fails to let you know he’s doing important, valuable work. But that’s the problem: The movie feels too fussed-over for such a low-key hero.	NEU
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"[It] represents a principled attempt to reconsider what heroism looks and sounds like, to think beyond the reductive rah-rah parameters that have led so many to confuse jingoism with art."	POS
United States	David Edelstein Vulture	"[it] is laborious (...) Every personality quirk of every astronaut or technician or overseer was liable to have shattering consequences. The moon was hard-earned and so was this movie. It’s a stupendous feat.	POS
United States	Soren Andersen Seattle Times	"Gosling and director Chazelle have created a portrait of a man who stands apart from his myth in their biopic about the late Neil Armstrong (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"An impressively mounted film, from the seamless visual effects to the score, which is flexible enough to accentuate both the film’s tension and its humanity"	POS
United States	Anthony Lane The New Yorker	"The film captures the grandeur and otherness of the Apollo saga, but not the Midwestern modesty of its hero, Neil Armstrong."	NEU
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"[It has] vision, verve, and brilliance we’ve come to expect from Chazelle. The film sets a new bar for other movies about the history of space travel, and I say that as someone who adores Apollo 13."	POS
United States	Leonardo Goi The Film Stage	"Some images recall 'The Tree of Life', but their gentle beauty is brutally juxtaposed with the terrifyingly claustrophobic camerawork inside various spacecrafts (...) Nobody has taken us to space this way before."	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Visually ravishing (...) It is a movie packed with wonderful vehemence and rapture (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Ryan Gosling brings Neil Armstrong back down to earth in a thoughtful character study (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	John Nugent Empire	"Astonishing. The definitive take on a monumental moment in history — without ever losing sight of the man underneath the visor (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Barry Hertz The Globe and Mail	"[Chazelle] conjures the type of cinematic high any filmgoer has been chasing since they first stepped inside a theatre. (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"Even when 'First Man' stumbles as historical psychodrama, it still represents a giant leap forward for movies about the physical experience of flight (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	David Opie Digital Spy	"Succeeds on multiple fronts, delivering a story that impresses on both a technical and personal level while also touching on the political backdrop that powered the Space Race (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	David Lister The Independent	"Ryan Gosling shines in this remarkably told Neil Armstrong biopic (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"[It] takes elegant flight but stalls across its extended closing sequences; in its probing of Armstrong’s emotional mechanisms, neglects the development of other characters who might have anchored it more securely"	NEU
Canada	Thomas Humphrey Screen Anarchy	"A subtle, thought-provoking piece of cinema by Chazelle (...) What's really remarkable is the fact that 'First Man' still manages to be a deeply nail-biting thriller"	POS

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