'First Man' is a restrained but still breathtaking achievement

There's something about space movies. Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian. They all worked gangbusters. To some degree it makes total sense -- there are immediate stakes -- space travel is inherently dangerous and it takes remarkable courage to do it -- but it's also surprising to me how emotional the experience is.

The Right Stuff picked up on this 35 years ago, when it memorably dramatized the ups and downs of the initial star astronauts. Neil Armstrong was not the focal point of that story, in fact, remarkably, he's never had a major motion picture centered on him. This may be because unlike his colleague and fellow original moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong was a famously private and taciturn man.

In fact, one could make the argument that Armstrong was one of the least well known best known people in the history of the world. We certainly all know his "one small step" quote, which is so eloquent and perfect that it still brings tears to my eyes (as does John F. Kennedy's inspiration speech justifying the goal of going to the moon).

So First Man, the latest from director Damian Chazelle, has a unique advantage over the other pictures I mentioned. It's about someone who was very real, who changed the course of history, but about whom many intimate details are not already know.

When First Man, which looks and sounds gorgeous and is performed immaculately by its cast, headlined by a wonderfully restrained Ryan Gosling and steely standout Claire Foy, comes to its conclusion you may know a little bit more about Armstrong -- who lost several astronaut friends to tragic work-related injuries and a young daughter to a tragic illness -- but there is still a lot that's withheld.

What is compelling, is the spirit of ingenuity, the drive, and passion of the people behind the space program. Even if they were motivated by an almost childish preoccupation with 'beating' the Russians, it's still so impressive, the feats we were pulling off during that period.

It's so easy to take from granted -- especially space travel now, which barely registers a blip on most peoples' radar screens. But I haven't felt this way about a movie like this since I saw Dunkirk. Just like with that movie, I marvel at what kind of determination people had to take challenges on head on instead of passing the buck. There's something so moving to me about people willing to step up, dot he hard work and even suffer for the greater good.

Armstrong may have been a closed off, even icy person, but he seems to me by all accounts to have been a hero and a patriot in the best sense of the word. And it's awe inspiring to watch his journey.

A lot of kudos should go to Chazelle, who has been taking a lot of shit for the divisive La La Land, so much so that even his breakthrough Whiplash has been reassessed in a negative way because of it. This film proves that he is a major filmmaker, no matter what you think of his previous work.

With the exception of the presence of Gosling, who he works really well with, there's nothing here that his previous work could have anticipated. It's a technical marvel -- with some stunning visuals that really make you feel the majesty of the moon and the claustrophobia of the space shuttle.

Simply put, it's one of my favorite movies of the year. It's not as outwardly showy and emotionally big as A Star Is Born or as purely fun and exciting as Black Panther, but it's an elegant masterpiece in its own right.