Nyad (20243-Netflix) Now that awards season is over (thank God), let us pause a moment to remember.....the Human Spirit.
During the punishing months of awards shows, the Human Spirit gets a real workout in speeches from nominees and winners......
For those who've tried to put it out of their minds already (not that we blame you), we speak of films that anoint themselves as "celebrations of the power of the Human Spirit..."
You remember the Human Spirit, right? It refers to humanity's (and movie characters) ability to endure, persevere, survive, and triumph in the face of......fill in the blank......racism, poverty, violence, natural disasters, corruption, disease, and other calamities like the prospect of a Trump Vs. Biden election contest......
'Human Spirit' movies exist mainly to accomplish two primary goals. #1. Make audiences feel good, comforted and uplifted.....#2 Suck up for Awards statuettes.
'Nyad' , at least on paper, must have looked like the ultimate Human Spirit movie.....about long distance swimmer Diana Nyad's five tortuous, grueling attempts to swim 110 miles from Cuba to Florida. After four failed, agonizing tries, she succeeded the fifth time at age 64.
What a story......and what a dynamo pair of world class actors to bring it to life.....Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as her coach Bonnie Stoll.
A surefire, barn burnin' Human Spirit feel-good hit, right?
Wrong.
The film, uncompromising in its depiction of Nyad as driven, obsessive and obnoxious to everyone in her orbit, didn't just want to celebrate the Human Spirit......
For two interminable hours, the film grabs you by the back of your head and literally waterboards you with the Human Spirit. Each of Nyad's four failed attempts are shown at length.....to the point where both the audience and the characters around Nyad are begging for mercy.
Unlike other Human Spirit movies, 'Nyad' wasn't designed to leave its viewers cheering and feeling warm 'n fuzzy about humanity.
'Nyad' only leaves you breathing a massive sigh of relief that it's finally over.
No question that Bening and Foster, at very top of their combined gifted talents, give spectacularly committed performances.
But once we'd sat through the film, we knew that neither of them had a chance in hell of winning Oscars in their respective categories (Best Actress for Bening, Best Supporting for Foster)
......because the filmmakers made 'Nyad' almost as much a punishment to sit through as "Killers Of The Flower Moon". To put it bluntly, a tedious, repetitive slog........and for 'Human Spirit' movies, that's self-destruction on an epic scale.
We're not saying that the makers of 'Nyad' should have gone way over in the other direction, such as the shameless, crude heartstring pulling of something like the odious 2011 "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". But in making their film an eat-your-spinach chore for audiences, they did neither themselves, nor Diana Nyad any favors.
BQ memo to directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.......you did achieve a fully unblemished portrait of Diana Nyad, if that's all you were after. But if you hoped to connect this story to audiences,.....a sad, huge fail. 1 star (*).
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