NYAD (2023) review

The person who succeeeds is the person willing to endure the most pain for the most amount of hours. A hold your breath, nail biting experience. There were moments where I genuinely felt like I was there waiting for Diana to take another stroke, another breath, and somehow keep moving forward. Very inspiring. It made me want to train harder and gave me newfound fuel to pursue my own dreams and goals in life. This feels like a powerful self help kind of film because of Diana Nyad’s relentless willpower. Watching her keep going despite her age, failures, physical pain, and everything working against her really sells the idea that sometimes the biggest obstacle is convincing yourself to continue. The editing also deserves a lot of credit. The editor stitches the training, swimming, memories, setbacks, and emotional beats together so smoothly that the story keeps moving even when the physical goal is incredibly repetitive by nature. The directors balance the clean filmmaking, tension, emotion, and uplifting moments really well. Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans all gave solid performances. Annette Bening completely commits to the physical and emotional exhaustion of Diana, Jodie Foster gives the film a lot of heart as the person constantly keeping her grounded, and Rhys Ifans adds another strong presence to the team.