12 Most Divisive Movies Of 2018

11. First Man

First Man Ryan Gosling
Universal

While there was controversy surrounding First Man before it even came out concerning the American Flag (or, more pressingly, the lack thereof) during Damien Chazelle's depiction of the Moon landing, it was something far more encompassing that led to it being heralded as either the best or worst film of the year.

First Man was negatively compared to Christopher Nolan's blockbusters, viewed by some as lacking in emotion, and ultimately a cold exercise in charting NASA's process rather than an exploration of human drama. Everyone agreed that Ryan Gosling's Armstrong came alive during the tense, wonderous space set-pieces, but that he fell flat on Earth.

Others thought that divide was pretty much the entire point of the story, though. The film wasn't intended to depict Armstrong as an all-American hero, but rather a real person who struggled in his position as a family man and excelled as an explorer and pilot.

At least both sides could agree on one thing: space has never looked scarier.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.