21st Century's Best Biopic Starring Ryan Gosling Leaves Netflix This November

The opening film of the Venice Film Festival and the second collaboration with director Damien Chazelle that fully revealed the rich dramatic potential of Ryan Gosling. This is all the movie First Man.

The plot is based on the story of Neil Armstrong, an aerospace engineer and test pilot who was the first man to set foot on the moon.

What Is First Man About?

Damien Chazelle usually makes movies about dreamers, and First Man is no exception. This is not a standard biopic recounting the fate of an extraordinary individual.

The story begins with a turning point in Neil's life – the death of his two-year-old daughter. The main character takes the tragedy hard, but at the same time he is not ready to share it with anyone – neither his wife nor his friends. He puts all his strength and energy into his work at NASA and sets himself the goal of making the first landing on the moon.

First Man Uses Space as a Backdrop to Tell a Very Personal Story

It's a rare case of people going into space in a movie, and references to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey are almost impossible to detect. Perhaps the point is that the story of the first moon landing itself is not the focus here, it works as a form.

Chazelle set himself a slightly higher goal than making a pretentious biopic. The director uses space more as a tool to talk about the inner processes of the main character, not about his achievement. Chazelle sent a man to the moon to show the all-consuming feeling of inner emptiness and the pain of losing a loved one.

Moreover, the artistic language works so well here that at one point you can feel the emotional vacuum the director is talking about. The main thing is to not forget to breathe.

First Man Is Damien Chazelle's Best Film Yet

The young director's third feature shows how much Damien Chazelle has grown as a filmmaker in such a short time. First Man can be considered his strongest and most ambitious work to date.

But despite the scope, the director is still making an auteur movie, just with a big budget. The emotional journey that Chazelle offers is much more exciting and thrilling than any expedition on a spaceship. After all, it is much more interesting to explore the complex nature of man than space.

First Man Is Leaving Netflix

If you haven't seen one of the best movies of recent years, you'd better hurry – First Man is leaving Netflix on November 15.