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ericcchristensen
Reviews
First Man (2018)
An amazing story in search of a motion picture home - The story's still searching.
I was 12 when Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon, and witnessing that moment in history was transformative for me. I spent the next 50 years writing professionally about, among other topics, space exploration and manned space flight for numerous publications. That's why I was so excited when I heard about this movie being made. I was hoping that, not since Tom Hanks' superlative HBO mini-series, "From the Earth to the Moon," Hollywood would tell one of the most incredible stories of modern day bravery and scientific accomplishment in a manner and on a scale it deserves.
I'm still waiting. "First Man," is little more than a series of barely connected vignettes in Neil Armstrong's life. There is no dramatic narrative to speak of in the film, and nothing that conveys the daunting nature or shear human magnitude of the race to the Moon in the 1960s. As portrayed by Ryan Gosling, the part of Neil Armstrong is a virtually nonspeaking role. He's perpetually morose, and has a range of facial expressions running the gamete from blank to slightly frowny. If you walk into the movie theater with little or no foreknowledge about Neil Armstrong or the early space program, you will leave in virtually the same condition. You will have learned nothing about how or why the early astronauts were such unique individuals, let alone how they were required to meet nearly impossible standards of training, expertise and experience to even be allowed to apply for the job. Your ignorance will go undisturbed about the substantial sacrifices made by members of the astronaut corps and their families - and by the thousands of scientists, engineers and others who contributed the entirety of their personal and professional lives - to make real the dream of the, "giant leap for mankind," given voice to by a martyred president in 1961.
You will also gain scant, if any, insight into what it meant to nearly every American and billions of people around the world, that humans had set foot on another celestial body. The degree and nature of how it changed - and could have changed - both Neil Armstrong's life and individuals everywhere, also didn't make it into the movie, either. In short, "First Man," is an empty spacesuit of a movie more notable for all of the elements of good storytelling and honest humanity that are absent from it. Leap giantly right over it and watch any of the many better cinematic treatments of the subject.
The John Larroquette Show (1993)
a great sitcom -- at first
The first season of Laroquette was, at least in my view, one of the most inventive and funny series on TV. A dark, dry and offbeat worldview pervaded the stories and the cast sold just incredible dialogue with rare verve and honesty.
I agree with the other reviewers, however, that later seasons became mundane and weak as they tried to broaden the show's appeal beyond the narrow group of devotees who found it during the first season.
I mean, my god, the episode where an employee from the U.S. Bureau of Weights and Measures passed through the bus station with the official inch measure of the United States and he asked John to watch the measure while he went to the men's room. Naturally, John became curious about it and, ultimately, wound up damaging the official inch measure. It was hilarious.
Or the episode where a teenage boy was at the bus station being transported back to his home in the rural south after running away from a sheriff's daughter. He was going to be sent to prison (unjustly) it turned out, when the local prostitute (a regular on the show) said she could tell he was a virgin. He admitted to this, and the cast decided that they would get together and hire the prostitute to "service him" before he went to prison. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter who was escorting him, wouldn't remove the handcuffs he had on the boy for the time he was to be serviced. So all you saw was this bounty hunter standing in John's office doorway with his arm flailing up and down in the door as the act was consumated. It was blindingly funny.
If there is any justice in this world, or appreciation for true dark humor, the powers that be will release at least the first season DVD.