First Man (2018)

Immersive and boldly chosen visuals and sounds on the ships (blurry, claustrophobic, loud) are paralleled by more shaky-cam close-ups and tense drama on earth, leading to stunning physical and emotional release on the bleak, vast, and silent lunar landscape (Gosling is solid throughout). The blip on the radar is how the great “Whitey on the Moon” critique (“I can’t pay no doctor bill, but Whitey’s on the moon”) is only followed up with, well, more movie about white guys going to the moon.

8

Ant-Man (2015)

Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world. (IMDb)

The estranged father-daughter duo is a little too brooding at times; thankfully, Rudd’s likeably lighthearted Scott and his buds (Pena’s excitable yet dim Luis steals every scene he’s in) provide enough ant-ics to break up the predictable melodrama, not to mention keep the standard superhero plot (cue the power-hungry villain) in check. The shrinking premise, meanwhile, adds a cool element to the action and even briefly probes questions of time and space (see Scott’s sub-nuclear fall).

7/10 (Good)