Movies
“Nyad” Is A Crowd Pleaser. Remarkably Recommendable.
Shoutout to my parents for recommending Nyad (2023). They don’t remember doing it, but I promise you, they did.
“The remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.”
Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Writers: Julia Cox, Diana Nyad
Stars: Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Rhys Ifans
Release: November 3, 2023
IMDB
Shoutout to my parents for recommending Nyad (2023). They don’t remember doing it, but I promise you, they did.
Nyad is an all-time feel good movie. Well known and Oscar nominated documentary filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi make a turn towards traditional storytelling with inspiring success. The married directors tell the true story of Diana Nyad in a sports-movie-esq fashion, and like any winning manager, Chin and Vasarhelyi hired the perfect player and coach.
Annette Bening plays the part of Diana Nyad. Bening sees the true-to-life defiance and determination that Nyad possesses. The portrayal Bening acts is a great version of the “charismatic asshole”. Everyone knows that type of person. Everyone knows someone who always has a way to piss you off a little, but deep down you know you’ll never quit. It’s a perverse type of bond, but it’s within everyone.
Bening has a doggedness to her in Nyad, so much so that it drew the attention of Hollywood and The Academy. Bening was nominated for an Oscar for the fifth time in her career. It’s her first in over 10 years, with her latest being the 2010 comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right.
Admittedly, it was a little shocking to see Bening’s name pop up during the initial nominations. With that being said, one can easily see why the performance is so likable. Nyad is so easy to root for despite not having many likable traits. The story of Nyad is inspirational and the perfect balance of true story and anonymity. Bening is at the center of every viewer Googling the film’s inspiration while the credits roll.
Bening’s portrayal of Nyad the athlete would be nothing without her coach. Bonnie Stoll, the unsung hero of Nyad’s historic swim, is portrayed by Jodie Foster. What a fucking year for Jodie Foster. The star of HBO’s newest season of True Detective and the recipient of an Oscar nominee. Don’t call it a comeback!
The two-time Oscar winner is well deserving of her fifth career nomination. The Foster performance isn’t flashy. It’s one of those performances that sneaks up on you. By the time the movie’s over, Foster is the role you’re thinking about.
Story time. I knew very little about Nyad going into it. Didn’t know the story, didn’t know anything. After watching Nyad, I thought to myself that Jodie Foster was freaking great and worthy of award talk. I looked up Oscar nomination prognostications online, and I’ll be damned, there was Foster’s name. I felt like a genius. Like I actually know what I was talking about.
And how nice is it to see Jodie Foster play a happy character? It’s not a common thing. Of course Foster had to balance out her kindness as Stoll with the nastiness of Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country.
Nyad is undeniably a story of female friendship, but there is one male character that steals a few scenes here and there. Rhys Ifans plays John Bartlett, the captain of the boat that’s escorting Nyad on her swim from the Cuba to Florida. Ifans’ best moments came interacting with Stoll on the boat. Most of the time it’s giving some sort of bad news, and that precedent makes the good news feel so much better. Bartlett has the courage to stand up to Nyad when the moment calls for it and over time that wins the stubborn part-fish over.
The viewing experience forces one to pay attention to Bening and Foster, but let’s not skip over the storytelling prowess of Chin and Casarhelyi. To have so much of the movie be about the hardships and the failure is a genius choice. The first failed run comes halfway through the movie, and it’s not till the final moments where pure joy happens. It would be easy to skip over the physical and personal problems that Nyad and Stoll endured. If this wasn’t a Lifetime movie, we don’t see Nyad training with a different coach or the truly low points of her ego.
While listening to one of the many movie podcasts I do, I discovered a very fun fact about making Nyad. It is true Bening, Foster and the whole cast worked a lot in and around the ocean. However, the footage from these scenes was tough to use because the lighting on the water was so difficult. There are many oceanic based shots that had to be combined with footage shot in a pool. THe VFX crew had to work on getting the ocean where Bening swam overlaid onto the pool where they had to reshoot. The often unknown troubles of filmmaking.
Nyad is a true feel good watch. It is one of the easiest movies to recommend. Nyad is made for everyone and no one can possibly find the ending uninspiring. Bening and especially Foster deliver with snappy chemistry and the story they embody will lead you on a short but rewarding Wiki deep dive.
Nyad is available on Netflix.
STANKO RATING: B+
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