'First Man' Considers Glory, Grief And A Famous Walk On The Moon
Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong in a story about the noise, heat and struggle it takes to overcome forces to which you're meant to surrender.
"You're bouncing off the atmosphere."
Early in director Damien Chazelle's First Man, this is one of the cautions given to Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) during his pilot training, years before he walked on the moon. That idea of the barrier between Earth and space, the violence of making the journey through it and the almost mystical experience of being on the other side of it forms the spine of the film.
We encounter Armstrong at three points: 1961, leading up to the start of his training as an astronaut; 1965, just before his first space
