I do appreciate the craft, all the hard work that went into making this. The opening space flight especially, it has a Dunkirk type quality to it. This movie is mostly a snoozer though. The launches, while intense, are all the same. And I think we are supposed to connect with the relationships in his life, but those parts of the movie are just as cold and dry as the moon itself, so it never really works.

Watch The Right Stuff or Apollo 13 instead. It's all right, but the film is just way too late to the genre.

I thought this looked like a dull homework assignment from the trailer and that's exactly what it ended up being. It's too bad because I really loved Damien Chazelle's other films (Whiplash and La La Land) and I'm also a fan of Ryan Gosling. Besides that the only reason I felt I had to see it is that it's a potential Oscar contender and I try and watch all of those. Reminded me of the film Jackie in the way that it's filmed and in the pacing. Both are also very cold films. For the most part I never felt anything but detached from these characters. Especially Gosling as Armstrong. Claire Foy does fare much better as his wife. The only moments where this overlong and tedious film come to life are during scenes with her. For a film trying to be a more grounded character-driven film rather than a visually appealing space epic it's a big problem when the characters feel entirely one-dimensional.

I thought this was fabulous. It's a technical marvel and I don't understand how you guys felt it was cold - the scene on the moon with Armstrong and the bracelet made me cry. The score is also gorgeous. Ryan Gosling gives a brilliant performance here too, it's a shame it's going unrecognized. Claire Foy was fine but I found her work a little too hammy for a film that is otherwise very subtle. Definitely one of the year's best.

Obsessed with this track from the score:



I need to rewatch this ASAP.

I didn't love this as much as the other two Damien Chazelle films, but it's still a pretty damn great movie. The craftsmanship here is stellar and I absolutely loved all the space/pilot testing sequences, especially the opening scene and the Moon landing bit at the end. Gosling is really solid here too and I don't get the complaints about him not showing any emotion, because from what I saw he showed plenty of emotion throughout and that scene at the end with him dropping his daughters bracelet was such a beautiful and touching moment IMO. Loved the score as well and this is definitely the first performance I have seen from Claire Foy that actually did impress me even though I didn't think she was amazing or anything.

A

It's fine. Doesn't do anything special. A beautiful score at times and some interesting shot choices, both mainly coming at The Moon finale, but I am not surprised this missed the big nominations during this awards season. I do not feel it does anything particularly special. It almost certainly would have been more of an experience witnessing it on the big screen, but I'm not sure I care too much about this part of history. I don't even know the date of The Moon landing, nor do I know the name of the third astronaut. I even kept expecting Neil to say "Houston, we have a problem" instead of his step line, which just highlights how little importance this event has on my historical barometer.

Americans pronounce things so weirdly sometimes. They say Gemi-knee instead of Gemi-nye. This annoyed me every time I heard it.

I thought this was fantastic. The launch scenes were breathtaking work by Chazelle, and despite knowing Neil is going to live it managed to make me forget it and be on the edge of my seat for his survival (I also have seen so many sci fi movie tropes that part of me still expected to aliens would show up or Buzz would betray Neil, even though it couldn't possibly happen). It does a perfect job of showing they were in creaky tin cans. The docking mission with the spinning was particularly crazy. I don't really understand the criticisms this is too quiet as there's a lot of thrilling space scenes. Love the score as well, especially during the landing. Framing the film around Neil's relationship to death after his kid and friends death was a great choice, and despite the no frills this was Gosling's best performance. There is so much pain he is holding in. Foy was excellent as well even if her character was weakest part of the movie. This is a tremendous addition to the genre.

Just got to seeing this, it has some great moments, the score is excellent and a real nice cast too, but it doesn't gel together well enough to be great as a whole. The space stuff is mostly pretty good, and the personal stuff is not bad and brings some context to the person Armstrong, but doesn't feel well executed. It's unevenly paced, it doesn't manage to get into a rhythm and so fails to lock me into it. Despite that I did find it's technical stuff very good making it still quite enjoyable, it's well shot and acted and with some historical significance built-in. It's just a bit imperfect and I like Chazelle's other films better.

B+