Man On The Moon.
141 Mins. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas, Pablo Schreiber, Cory Michael Smith, Leon Bridges, Ciaran Hinds & Kyle Chandler. Director: Damien Chazelle.
"We need to fail. We need to fail down here so we don't fail up there"! Ryan Gosling's words ring true in today's Instagram age, were we can't put a foot wrong without someone and then everyone tweeting about it in an instant put down that keeps scrolling away at us. Obviously they never listened to what the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan said about failure. But see that phone you hold in your hand? The National Aeronautics Space Administration shot for the same moon that Neil Armstrong took one giant step on before anyone else, with less technical power than what you're thumbing through right now. Now THAT'S what I call a giant leap. Mankind just wait until you hear the warmth of those iconic, immortal words from your vantage point of the third rock from the sun, like everyone did from their living room television sets that day. As you look up and watch this Rocketman propel like, "ready for main engine launch". And we aren't talking about the new Elton John movie starring his 'Kingsman' lead Taron Egerton next Summer. As dressed up in Dodger Stadium concert uniform blue and about to knock it out the parks bleachers, 'Eddie The Eagle' isn't the only one who knows how to soar for the skies when it comes to brilliant biopics in a rhapsody bohemian. Another eagle has landed as Ryan reunites with the 'La La Land' of Damien Chazelle after they looked out of a floating Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles to the heavens. Reuniting to go even further than the sign of the Hollywood 'City Of Stars' and out this world with a buzz cut to play the man followed by Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong. From the first born to boldly go where no man has gone before in space. To the 'First Man' to ever plant a flag on the dark side of the moon. And at the same time that Bradley Cooper is proving that with Lady Gaga 'A Star Is Born', Ryan and Damien show to find one you have to work on the wing of your hope and a prayer. Here's to the fools who dream of a life beyond what crazy, stupid lovers, Gosling and Stone two-stepped to as they floated out of the Hollywood Hills of the Griffith Observatory in a wonder of a waltz. Giant steps is what he takes, walking on the moon. Upon leaving the earths atmosphere there's a moment were the rocket looks like the light of a cross. Showing us we can't get much closer to God or his infinite mercy than this. The final fronteir. And regardless if like the R.E.M. song about Andy Kaufman you believe they put a man on the moon. Or if you think it's all moonshine. You'll be drawn into this fifties feeling, classic looking movies orbit. As poetic as it is magnificent.
Houston, we have an 'Apollo 13' like great at our control. The run for the Oscars has officially begun with the space race dreams of a farmboy from Ohio who wanted to grow up a hero and take off from the cornfields like Superman. And this time the crop of returning mission talent in new actor/director one, two combo Gosling and Chazelle hope they get the right envelope. Signed, sealed and delivered by moonlight. Because it doesn't get much realer than this for all those who thought the space odyssey of the moon landing was all a Kubrick creation like '2001', before astronauts started swinging their best Tiger Woods impressions out the bunkers of its craters. This takes you right into the first person cockpit, claustrophobic confides of the atomic bomb, tin can shuttle itself. That in its ascent feels like the depths of a submarine submerging. And we thought that 'Interstellar' jarring docking scene was still of space, hauntingly tense. Talk about a simulation. This is beyond stimulating. This gives you a rocketman's birds eye view of earth out of the eyes of an Iron Man visor like window, that just goes to show you how super these mere mortals really were at seemingly steel melting temperatures. Which is why like everyone else in the fashion of today, if I want to feel like a real hero I will wear a NASA t-shirt aswell as a Captain America one. The pressure cooker, subtle, oft-pushed to the back of the mind in vain, spring-coiled tension breaks like a blood red wine glass in your unexpected hand at a celebratory party distraction, plot function. All executed perfectly by Chazelle's compelling, straight laced directions and Gosling's quiet, fierce intensity that Bill Murray's photographer in 'Lost In Translation' would snap up in a shutter second. As stoically compelling as this whole picture, his anxiety only showing as he nervously thumbs the band of gold on his ring finger. As he can't find the words at his family dinner table to tell his two sons that their father may not make it home again. One existential scene of one of his sons walking the picket fence street of his families home and taking the grand gravity of it all in echoes that of 'The Tree Of Life'. The moonlight that glows between the same branches at the fog of night shine like beams that are alien, straight out of a sixties sci-fi. Plant and strap yourself in to your place at the table. Because based on James R. Hansen's bedside table, homelife intimate book 'First Man', there's as much tension going on in the heart of the Armstrong household dining room as there is the cockpit core of the Apollo 11. Grounding the realest family drama surrounding this out of world feat since Ron Howard manned a mission with Tom Hanks. Just as there is breathless beauty. Whether it be up there amongst the stars and moondust. Or down to the same earth that looks like nothing else below. As Gosling harmonises like that haunting theremin (Great British talk show host Graham Norton brought it out on his show for Ryan and the theme of new 'Doctor Who', Jodie Whittaker. But you could tell from the look on 'Star Is Born' star Lady Gaga's face that she will probably record her next album on one) the tranquility of the quiet of space with the moments of peace, sweetly singing his newborn baby a lullaby as she falls asleep in his rocking arms. Genuine sentimental serenity amongst all the crazy as he watches his angel rest. Shining on the one you love.
Transcendent like Chris Nolan's 'Interstellar'. As grounding as Sandra Bullock in 'Gravity'. And amongst all the 'Arrival's' and 'Martian's', all whilst showing you the nuts and shaking bolts of all the real, groundbreaking, behind the scenes work that went into this lift off like 'Hidden Figures'. Whip-smart director Chazelle looking to give Gosling 'Whiplash' make for a dynamic duo under dynamite pressure. But the real diamond in this rough, amongst all the boys who have nothing under control is Claire Foy. The Golden Globe winning Royal Highness may just be the one crowned by the Academy. And in the year Janet Armstrong sadly passed and joined Neil in the sky this is the ultimate tribute testament. Just like in one of Hollywood's leading, leading men playing a real (American) hero and historical figure like Kennedy or Ali (the lack of a flag on their play for the moon like the legend Kaepernick isn't unpatriotic, but a world wide reaching influence to the inspirations of men and moments like these. And besides Armstrong left something far more poignant there). Giving us one of Gosling's greatest next to the likes of 'Drive', 'Blue Valentine', 'The Place Beyond The Pines', 'The Ides Of March' and of course last years 'Blade Runner 2049'. But he isn't the only hero here in a class cast of astronauts and engineers who without would render this all nought. The other real hero is the head of the household who keeps a roof and one of hope over her families head when everything else goes to palm to glass imprisoning s###. The forthcoming 'Girl In The Spider's Web' protects her nest with fury and dignity. The bricks and mortar behind the bolster wood crew of valuable vets like filmography everyman Jason Clarke. Class character actors, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas and Ciaran Hinds. Pablo Schreiber (who looks so much like his famous half-brother we don't even have to say his first name). 'Gotham's' enigmatic Riddler, Cory Michael Smith. Corey Stoll as a biopic worthy Buzz and great by the film Kyle Chandler doing his best Ed Harris. Even modern Motown, soul sensation throwback Leon Bridges doing a protest rendition of late, great Gil Scott Heron's, 'Whitey On The Moon' poetry. But from all the way home to what we see up there from our porches telescope when the sun goes down, this 'First Man' and the womans work behind him are in matrimony what will take our hero to the moon...and back. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'La La Land', 'Hidden Figures', 'Apollo 13'.
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