I think everyone truly believes they know the classic patriotic story about how America first reached the moon, sadly I'm here to tell you that you really don't.

"First Man" directed by Damien Chazelle did an amazing job capturing the unique story of Neil Armstrong, which is much more than just being the first astronaut to walk on the moon. His story involves sacrifice, hard work, and facing adversity almost every step of the way. Honestly, I didn't know nearly half the facts of his life, and the fact that he made it to the moon despite what he went through is kinda insane.

Besides an amazing story, the movie was shot phenomenally. A bit of a side note here but, I went to see "First Man" with a lovely Dutch girl who happens to be studying film, and she was blown away by how carefully every scene was shot. Visually the movie was extremely pleasing. Chazelle did an unbelievable job making sure to set moods with an amazing sound design mixed with carefully selected lighting. I mean you could literally tell just from the lighting that this movie takes place throughout the 1960's. How could you tell the years of the movie just by the lighting? Don't ask questions just go see for yourself.

Also just for the fans out there, ya boy did get a second date so shout out to me.

Back on the movie though, Ryan Gosling aka the man the myth the legend took on the challenge of playing Neil, and this man knocked it out of the park. Not to spoil anything specific just know that this role called for an actor who needed to show emotional pain mixed with determination while going through tough family sacrifices. Gosling nailed it. There's a scene shown in the trailer where Neil is talking to his kids about the possibility that he might not be coming back from the moon, and the tension/gut-wrenching feeling the entire audience shared had made me want to just scream and punch a hole through the chair in front of me. His acting was incredible.

Even though hanging a movie all on the chiseled back of Gosling's acting ability isn't the worst move in the world, he had major help from his co-star Claire Foy who played Janet Armstrong, Neil's wife. Personally, I don't know much about Foy, but holy hell she is unbelievable. I can only imagine her audition went something like "Hey Claire how are you at playing a mom having to deal with death, two young kids, a husband struggling with his emotions and his career, all while balancing the fact she might lose her husband along the way?" Claire Foy shout out to you because that's how you flex your acting muscles and crush a damn role.

All in all, I would personally rate this movie a 91/100, and actual critics aren't too far off rating it mid to high 80's. The story is captivating, the directing was on point, and the acting backed it all up. In a land of Hollywood where there are so many boring movies coming out like "Wreck It Ralph 6: He's Still Gonna Wreck It" it's nice to see something original.

I like to tell people to watch a lot of movies, but if there's one movie that you plan on actually going to theaters for this year, please let it be "First Man."