I have been mulling this over two days now. This is an extraordinarily well-directed film. Intellectually, it’s brilliant. I get what Chazelle is doing. It’s fantastic direction that differs from the normal bio pic.
But Ryan Gosling is incredibly boring as Armstrong. It’s hard to get emotionally involved when I’m more interested in Claire Foy raising the kids than I am Ryan Gosling getting stuck in space. It turns out Neil Armstrong is boring — who knew?
The direction really is marvellous, but it’s the Chazelle film I’ve enjoyed the least. It doesn’t have Whiplash’s intensity, and it’s not as delightful (or delightfully subversive) as La La Land was.
And I feel bad about that, because I read the reviews and it sounds like you all loved it. I’d watch this again. I could be wrong. I reserve the right to change my mind later. Maybe I went in expecting the wrong sort of movie. But I’ve seen much better films about obsessive workaholics.
Truthfully, I think Chazelle doesn’t understand why Armstrong went to space. Asking the question, as Chazelle does, is good. But we’re never given plausible motivation. I never see a good reason to buy into or believe in this struggle. And the whole thing comes off hollow.
That said, it’s a heckuva lot better than Interstellar.