First Man (2018)

First Man is a 2018 American biographical drama directed by Damien Chazelle, chronicling the years leading to Neil Armstrong's historic first walk on the Moon in 1969. Ryan Gosling stars as Armstrong, an intensely private, emotionally guarded engineer and test pilot whose grief over the death of his two-year-old daughter Karen drives his pursuit of ever-more-dangerous missions — from the X-15 program to the Gemini 8 near-disaster to the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts to the final, harrowing descent of the Eagle lunar module. Damien Chazelle deliberately shot the flight sequences in claustrophobic 16mm handheld footage from inside the cramped spacecraft, making the audience feel every rattle, creak, and terrifying vibration, before expanding to luminous IMAX footage for the Moon landing — one of the most awe-inspiring visual transitions in modern cinema.

Ryan Gosling's restrained, internalized performance captured Armstrong's legendary stoicism while suggesting the enormous emotional cost of suppressing grief. First Man earned $105 million worldwide on a $59 million budget and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.