“Hold your breath” for the best formulaic sports movie of the year. Sometimes, critics love films that, for lack of a better word, are Oscar bait (see TÁR and WOMEN TALKING last year). Yet, the movie the Oscars have forgotten about in recent years is the underdog sports genre. Yes, NYAD is such a film, but the twist is that rather than focus on men, it’s the story of a woman in her sixties attempting to do something no one has ever done by swimming from Cuba to Key West.
What makes NYAD work so well is the immersive direction by first-time feature film directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Coming off their documentaries, THE RESCUE and FREE SOLO, NYAD is the perfect transition for them to make a feature. It has the same style story of a protagonist who attempts to transcend their capabilities to do the impossible. That protagonist is Diana Nyad, played by Annette Bening, in quite possibly the best performance of her career. It’s so good that I would be shocked if she isn’t nominated for an Oscar next year.
NYAD is also rounded out with a slew of fantastic supporting performances. The always great Jodie Foster plays Bonnie Stoll, Diana’s trainer and best friend. While the underused Rhys Ifans makes a welcome return as the gruff navigator, John Bartlett.
With the larger-than-life performances and the visually appealing cinematic style of Chin and Vasarhelyi, NYAD deserves to be seen on the big screen in a theatre full of strangers. Character studies and smaller films are okay to watch at home, but feel-good sports movies where you can laugh, cry, and bond with strangers is the magic of going to the theater. And NYAD captures those moments exquisitely. In my NYAD experience, there was a stranger in his seventies with what appeared to be a frail body (he had a cane and a neck brace). Watching him cry, laugh, and feel inspired by Diana at age sixty-four attempting the impossible was the positive moment I needed after a week of rough world news.
NYAD will start streaming on Netflix on November 3rd, but I encourage everyone to see it on the big screen starting this Friday (October 20th).
