News

Jul 27, 2023

The Best Ryan Gosling Movies: ‘Barbie,’ ‘Drive,’ ‘First Man,’ and More

Who Ryan plays: Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever walk the Moon. Damian Chazelle’s second collaboration with Gosling is an entirely different beast from “La La Land”: a quiet character study that

Who Ryan plays: Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever walk the Moon. Damian Chazelle’s second collaboration with Gosling is an entirely different beast from “La La Land”: a quiet character study that explores Armstrong’s mission to become the first man on the Moon, and how that impacted his relationship with planet Earth.

Why he’s great: Gosling has never been more subtle, and more downcast, than he is in “First Man;” as depicted by the script, Armstrong is a man consumed by grief at the premature passing of his daughter, and single-minded in his mission to reach the stars. It’s a challenging part for any actor to play, but Gosling smashes it, bringing all of the internal demons going through Armstrong’s mind to the surface with just a glance and a shift of his eyes. Gosling had to let go of his signature charm to play Armstrong in the film, but he ended up with the most extraordinary performance of his career in the process. —WC