“Congratulation, Jan.”

From First Man.

When an opportunity presents itself for Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), a young astronaut with training as both a pilot and an engineer, to be part of the Apollo missions, he and wife Jane (Claire Foy) begin a new life preparing for the hopefully–one–day lunar landing.  A wide variety of men have been gathered together for the various Apollo missions tasked with testing the spacecraft and preparing the astronauts for the mission to land on the Moon.  Over the next few years, close to a dozen missions, each manned by various astronauts (including Jason Clarke and Cory Michael Smith), take place; few are without issue and several result in death.  Armstrong struggles to stay focused on the task in light of all the challenges, both at work and home, but when he is selected to lead the Apollo 11 mission with Buzz Aldrich (Corey Still) and Mike Collins (Lukas Haas), he rises to the challenge so that America can be the first nation to land on the Moon.  The closer the launch date gets the more challenges Neil must face from the recent deaths of the other astronauts to preparing his sons (Luke Winters and Connor Blodgett) for his absence to the life-changing mission itself.

While many viewers will know the basics of the story, few will know the entire story and this movie does a brilliant job of bringing all those involved in the space race of the 1960s to light with amazing special effects and acting.  Gosling and Foy lead brilliantly in this somber-yet-exciting look into the history of America with the movie’s pacing gives the movie a perfectly-timed display. After watching the many sacrifices of the American astronauts throughout the movie, it is disappointing to not see the planting of the American flag on the Moon as the push to beat Russia there was one of the main drives, both in real life and the script.  However, overall First Man is a fascinating, detailed look at an amazing man and astronaut.

| Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 138 minutes |Genre: biography/action/drama |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 3* of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|