Home Show First Man

Greetings, Empire member, and or members.
If you're hearing the sound of my voice, it means you know a couple of things about a
couple of things.
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check us out on your favorite podcast app because it's not for another home show.
This is number 434 for those of you playing the home game.
My name is Rob, I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast, and I don't know
we've ever talked about this, but when I was a kid, I was focused on becoming an astronaut.
To the point for a career day, my mom actually made me an astronaut costume, and she got me
some stuff from Cape Kennedy, and I was able to show it around, it was pretty neat.
Actually, I just kept coming up for once in it, but I'm not alone for this journey
of me across the desk is the fact checker of this show, and a man given where he grew
up got to look at a lot of stars a lot of the time, because when you're out there in
rural Montana, you get to see all the stars, and I'm kind of jealous of that.
You may know him as fond, don't go, but as a mom, I'm gonna name him Don Ford, I'm gonna
call him Don Ford, what's up, brother?
Of course, during this city, it don't matter, lights are lights, and it's kind of whatever,
but many times when we were in the snowmobile, that night, in the big horn mountains in Wyoming
up in where there's no light, you turn off those snowmobiles, look up, it's almost a blanket
of white.
Oh yeah, it is credible, beautiful.
Whatever we do one of these, it is to review something, and this is no exception.
When I say Damien Chazelle, you think things like La La Land, and Whiplash.
For the first time, he's not only directing a film that isn't about music, but it's also
the first time he's directed a film that he didn't write.
Based on the book by James R. Hanson, he directs Ryan Gosling in First Man.
For some soaping?
Yes, sir.
We got to think Marianne and everybody had slifox.
Zimini, Zimini, Zimini, Zimini, Zimini, we love our vendors, our vendors are amazing
people.
They let us see movies early so we can talk to you guys about them.
Now Don and I saw this in separate screenings that were literally different experiences.
So I'll be interested as we talk about this.
This is about Neil Armstrong.
You may have heard of him.
Yeah, his footprints on the moon.
This takes us from 1961 through 1969, as he is a test pilot who ends up getting grounded
for certain reasons.
They don't ever tell him he's grounded, but they just don't send him back up.
So he decides he is going to apply to be part of the NASA astronaut program in the Gemini
program, which will lead to the Apollo program because we've got to get to space before we
can walk on the moon.
Yeah.
Kind of helps.
Let me run down this cast for you.
We already talked about Ryan Gosling, his second venture through with Shazal after Lala
Land.
Claire Foy from the Crown, Pablo Schreiber, who you guys know I'm a fan of, Leo's brother,
Ethan Embry, Searing Hines, Jason Clark, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Shay Wiggum, Patrick
Fugget, Lucas Haas, Corey Michael Smith are all in this movie.
A couple people.
Yeah.
This is a huge cast.
Yeah.
It runs about two hours and twenty minutes.
Now let's go with your experience first.
Now did you see this?
I don't remember.
Did you go to the Angelica?
Did you go to the studio movie girl?
I did the Angelica in Plano.
Okay.
So talk about, I mean, what was the experience like there for you?
It wasn't like a Dolby or anything like that.
Okay.
It was just a normal theater.
I wasn't aware of any like a special 3D or anything like that.
Or Dolby's Atlas or whatever.
Because this is the first time, and this is done by Universal Pictures.
Yeah.
This is the first time Universal's used IMAX cameras to film anything.
Okay.
This is an IMAX screen or anything like that, so.
So it was your normal, normal screen.
Just basically B-flat screening.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
What about you?
For me, I actually saw it in the cinema XD, which is a premium format.
Okay.
Very IMAX-esque, if you will.
It was not 3D.
I don't think they're releasing it in 3D.
But I had never seen anything in this particular format before.
I was thoroughly impressed.
It's okay.
I mean, it was a huge screen.
Gorgeous, very impressed with the presentation overall.
And we're going to get to one other difference here in a minute.
Okay.
But let's talk about the film itself first.
I thought this was an excellent, excellent film.
I was very impressed.
I think for people that are looking for a lot of action, don't look for that in this.
You won't get it.
Shazel.
Actually, I can't talk about that just yet.
We'll talk about that in a minute.
But if you're looking at a movie that's about space exploration, this is not that.
Well, yeah.
Yeah, but that's not the focus of what this really is.
Because this film, as much as it's about space exploration, it's also about Neil Armstrong
and his personal life and his relationship with his family, dealing with the loss of
his daughter at a very young age to a tumor, and how that affected him down the road.
You know, when he's interviewing to be part of this program, one of them asks, you know,
will that play a role in how you do the job?
And he says, I can't lie to you until you that it can't.
But they take the chance on him yet anyway.
And they show, they don't show a lot of the training, but they show you enough of the
training that the audience understands that, you know, to be an astronaut, you don't just
show up to work and here we go.
Yeah, you do two weeks of space camping, bye-bye.
And I also thought that it was really neat how it showed how these guys, and if you know
the story of the space program, you know, not everybody's going to make it all the way
through this.
Yeah.
But the Gemini accident, right, and the Apollo accident too, there's an Apollo accident
as well.
But it's about how these guys went out of their way to shield their children from the
danger of their job.
And I was really impressed by that aspect of it because you don't, you don't see that
side of it much of how it affects their families.
You have movies like The Right Stuff, which is an amazing film.
And it does, I say this in my written review at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
This movie makes me want to go back and watch The Right Stuff again.
I've watched The Right Stuff in years.
But I felt like this would be a really good back-to-back double feature.
One thing about this film, which I put my written review at www.theclubhousepodcast.com,
that's still our website, is it shows the archaic in a way equipment that they had back
then compared to what they have now.
Well, yeah.
But the part of that's because, I mean, that's what they have now, but I found that
really interesting, which I thought, because some of this stuff, like the first scene is
him testing a plane, which is going into the limits of space, almost, and then there's
some scenes where it's just like cranky-de-crackity.
It's like, I have like a washer at home that's probably in better shape than this thing
that I'd feel safer in in this thing.
But for them, that was the, but compared to what they have now, this shows that this
was archaic equipment, this was the test equipment, and some of these people, they get in there
and they're like, are we safe?
A lot of things, when they see films like, you know, Apollo 13, which is great and all
that, it shows the glory of them going into space and all that, which would be great.
But, you know, there's a lot of danger in this, which I put my lead paragraph in my review
that the death rate of the people who, in space travel, is a high percentage to them
where people have been in space compared to driving or flying.
Because the margin for air is very slim.
Yeah, exactly.
And then you mentioned Apollo 13, the gym level, the character that Tom Hanks played in
that, is played by Pablo Schreiber.
Yeah.
That's the same verse.
Oh, and Jasper agrees with me.
Yeah.
Hi, Jasper.
But, I found it really great that this film really shows the dangers.
One thing I wish they would have done, because I heard about this, is showing them, give
them sign-eye pills, because they gave them sign-eye pills, because sorry, if something
happens when you're out there, we don't want you to suffer.
Well, and I think, yeah, in that part of it too, there's a line that I've actually shown
in the trailer, so this isn't giving you anything away.
When Neil Armstrong, you know, they're doing a test and it goes wrong, he says, we have
to fail down here, so we don't fail up there, which I thought was a really good line and
I'm glad it was in there.
And it shows, and there's one scene in there where he's in space testing and it goes,
hey, why?
And it's just, this is not all gory.
This is not getting on, you're not in flight sitting down and going, woo, we're in the
area.
Well, and you're also looking, you have to look at it from at the time too, we were dealing
with Vietnam, and there were a lot of people that didn't think that the space program was
worth the money that was being put into it, so there was a lot of testing going on.
And we're the rushing it, because it was a race.
Because we were at, you know, the Soviet Union was kicking our butt there for a while.
But I also liked the contrast because Gosling, who's great in this, he's always great,
he's Ryan Gosling.
But he plays it, he doesn't try to do a kneel, because if you hear the one small step
from him, that's not the voice he does.
It's just kind of Ryan Gosling playing this character, but the, because, and he's very,
very low key.
And the contrast between him and Corey Stoll's Buzz Aldrin, who's very, let's just say
he's inappropriate in a couple of spots.
But the contrast between them, I didn't realize how just polar opposite of humans that they
were, and I thought they played that really well, especially as we're into Apollo 11,
we were getting close to that point where it's go time.
We're fixing a land on the moon.
Yeah, and we better, this, then landing on the moon was not a simple thing, even just
landing, right?
Right.
Where, where the spot to be a safe place to land.
Um, my one thing though, is this film really shows Buzz Aldrin, I mean, uh, Armstrong,
Armstrong, Gosling's portrayal, I don't know, and this is kind of weird because if the,
Neil Armstrong were this way, I got to give it to Gosling on this.
And could I see some nominations next year, easy, but if it's true, Neil Armstrong has
the personality of a rock and emotional caring of, of two, uh, bricks of, of two bricks.
I mean, there was like one scene in the beginning where after his daughter died and says, I
got a question for you, um, you know, your daughter, and he goes, well, sorry about your
daughter.
And he goes, well, that's what I just mentioned.
I mentioned that a couple minutes ago.
I was just wondering, where's the question?
Where's the question?
Right.
And there's some, he wouldn't even talk to his kids.
I mean, there are a lot of scenes where this guy has no emotion.
I mean, I get more emotion from, from, from Hunter the Battle Cat.
But it was that time when men had to be men.
Yeah, but he's real.
He and he does take that a little bit farther than I think a lot of people did, but I like
the way he portrayed it and just the family part of it.
Was just as enthralling to me as the spake is visually.
Yeah.
Dear God, visually, this thing's beautiful, but seeing the interactions of these guys with
their families and how, you know, okay, I need to talk to him, but I need to talk to him
out here.
I don't want to come in the house to talk to him.
And it's pouring rain outside and like, there's one scene where somebody comes up to
and kneel and says, are you okay?
He goes, if I want to talk to somebody, I'd be inside.
Yeah.
Leave me alone.
It's just like, oh, but he's one of those guys that, in there, he's like a computer in
a way.
He has no emotion, but this guy is like a human computer of space travel who will be able
to, let me do it, let me do it, let me do it.
But hi, how you doing?
Hi, leave me alone.
I'm just going to get the job done kind of thing.
He's very intent on getting the mission completed.
But emotionally, yeah, they was just boom, now there is one, I have two complaints I have
with this film.
Okay.
One is how it ended.
I wish they would have done more of the 11 than everything else and the ending itself.
I go, that's where they're ending it.
I was okay with it.
Just like, don't give it away.
Yeah, I know, but it's just like, that's how they ended it with.
There's nothing really after this, literally it is he lands and that's how the film ends.
And there's no follow-up call or either.
No, nothing.
It's, I am here, okay, and it's boom.
I thought they could have done a lot better with the ending.
Number two is this film, I will bet that Philip Morris or Camel Cigarette Company was a
sponsor of this film or helped fund it because there were so many scenes where they're making
the point.
But that's the way it was.
They overdid it.
So many scenes on it.
There were a lot of scenes where it shows them, I'm lighting up again, I'm lighting up
again.
We're showing the astray.
Here's the astray.
Here's the astray.
I'm smoking.
But that's what they did.
I know, but it made a point of them.
Okay.
I get it.
They're smoking.
But I thought there's too many references to smoke or cigarettes or the astrays in this
film.
There was only one or two in Apollo 13.
This one, it was through the whole film, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke.
I'm lighting up.
I'm lighting up.
I'm smoking again.
There were like chain smokers on the whole thing.
That's one thing I thought was kind of, I get to point your smokers.
I didn't bother me.
It did for me.
Because it was just the way they did it then, you know, I mean it's like watching Mad Men's
the same thing.
It was my two graphs.
I think they over emphasis the cigarettes in this film.
For two hours and 21 minutes, this is paced incredibly well.
Yeah.
It is long.
You know it's long.
Right, but it doesn't feel it.
It's not turned to my alcohol.
Now, for my screening, I got a little bit of a bonus.
The great Robert Waloski was sitting in front of me, great guy, big fan.
He was hosting a Q&A afterwards.
We weren't aware what's happening going in.
What we wound up with was a Q&A with Damien Schizel, who brought out the daughter of one
of the astronauts, Neil Armstrong's two sons and Ryan Gosling.
The characters.
You said the daughter.
Not Neil Armstrong's real daughter, but the real life, the real life daughter and sons
and Gosling.
No, Neil Armstrong's real kids or the people that...
No, the actual people.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
The daughter of one of the astronauts, I can't remember which one.
Oh, I thought it was the people they...
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
The only actor that was there was Gosling.
Oh, great.
These were the actual people they were based on.
Wow.
And a very, very excellent 25 minute discussion that Waloski had with them.
And one of the things that Schizel said was, you know, he had read the book and he was
really fascinated with the book.
And that's when he called Gosling and Gosling was just like, he's like, okay, how does
the film open?
He was like, I'm in.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
But he said it started as a film about space exploration and then it turned into this
other thing, which was kind of a natural progression for me.
And watching and hearing Schizel talk about it, which was, it was a great conversation.
Everybody was great.
Of course, Gosling shows up and the place goes crazy.
But Waloski asked great questions of everybody and everybody answered those questions honestly.
And it kind of enhanced the film a little bit for me.
Well, some of the questions he asked of the kids were just like, you know, the film portrays
how you were shielded from and they're like, yeah, we totally were to us.
It was just like our dad going to work.
You know, I mean, we knew that he would go to the moon, but we never really had that conversation
until you saw the film about, you know, this is, this, I may not come back from this
one.
You know, but to us, it was just our dad's doing their jobs and there was a really great
discussion.
I thought everybody did a great job.
Gosling talked about how important it was for him to be respectful to the role and to
do everything he could, you know, he actually went to the town, Neil grew up in and interacted
with a lot of people that Neil knew just just kind of get a feel for the man.
And I thought it was a really good conversation.
I was very impressed.
And again, thank you to everybody at Sly Fox for providing that.
That was an amazing surprise that plus seeing an XD did not expect any of their so.
But here's the thing.
I love this movie.
But it's right now sitting right outside of my top 10.
And I can't tell you why.
That's the thing about it.
I can't tell you.
I can't tell you what was missing.
That was going to push it over that hump.
This is an excellent film and I think everybody should go see it.
It's beautifully shot.
It's beautifully acted.
It's beautifully written.
But I can't tell you what's keeping it out of my top 10.
And I've been thinking about this for almost 24 hours now.
And I don't know what I was expecting to see that I didn't.
What about you?
I really enjoyed it and I love the reality of the how many times you hear the metal creaking
stuff.
It's not real.
And even when she'll do it.
And I'm telling you, in that auditorium, I was in, you heard everything.
And the Gemini accident that happened before the rocket went off.
I love the reality.
How it's just one scene of a poof.
And it's like, well, OK, that's why I love the reality.
And again, I really liked it.
I don't know how really an emotional Armstrong is in real life.
But if that is, Gossam did an incredible.
But I just had this too little beast.
You found that.
I really did like it, too.
But it is long.
It is long.
Yeah.
Anything else for us to find out?
Let's just do it.
The way we do the file analysis on the show, I'm not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs
down, letter grades, numbers, rings of Saturn, anything like that.
We're going to ask up to two questions.
Question number one is, would we see this film again?
If the answer's no, then we're done here.
But if the answer's yes, the follow up question is, how far are we willing to go to do so?
From the best of the best of the worst of the best, we go full price.
Is the theater down to a twilight showing, down to a matinee, down to an early morning
on a weekend, down to a second run at the dollar theater, down to actually leaving your
house to get it from red box, down to streaming it on Netflix, down to cable.
Don, would you see first man again?
Yes.
I'm going to hold on.
I wasn't prepared for that because I was doing something else.
How far are you willing to go to do so?
Afternoon showing to twilight.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So it's good.
Yeah.
I would definitely see this again, and I'm going full bore.
Are you coming in?
I'm still not going to do the thing.
Absolutely.
And I would highly recommend this in a premium format.
What do you think Dolby would do?
I think it would be amazing.
Just from the opening shot.
Yeah, that's just, and seeing in that cinema XD was just dear God, it was beautiful and
the sound and everything else, go see this movie.
Damian Chazelle's got another hit on his hands with first man.
Uh, for this whole thing.
Yes, sir.
We got, like, Marianne Airbade's life, ox, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing,
zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing,
we love our vendors.
Go ahead, sir.
Real fast.
Do you think Gossling asked her to talk next year?
I could see it, but it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't.
Okay.
Just because I...
I think it was Gossling.
It was Gossling.
It's Gossling.
Oh, no pun intended.
Yeah.
Oh.
This is, you know, Buzz Aldrin.
Yeah, I got it now.
What's hit this thing?
All right.
Let's do our little plugs and get out of here.
Visit our website, where you can find our written reviews in so much more of the aforementioned
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Follow us on social media, Twitter's at ClubhouseShow, everything else is the Clubhouse podcast.
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You can follow him at ChadNPG69.
And on Twitter, I'm at Igbenu, and that's IGBUNUUU, also email me at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
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We love doing live remote shows and hanging out with the Empire.
You can email me questions, comments, concerns, so many go pounds sand.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.
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So until next time for Don and the Empire, I'm Rob, clubhouse is closed, and I'm pretty
farmer, you'll be cool.