The Rescue – 6.5

A theoretically dramatic story of the cave-diving rescue of 12 trapped boys in Thailand in 2018, this documentary somehow left me cold. Maybe because I compared it to the superior Free Solo by the same directors. Visually, 40% was talking heads, 40% faceless swimmers in dark, muddy water. Many of the action scenes were unannounced re-enactments, which made you wonder, “how’d they shoot that?,” and left you a little confused (as opposed to Free Solo, where you asked the same question but then were amazed by the answer). The divers were worthy heroes, but once we met them there was little more to learn. It was a hard story to tell after the fact, with obvious restrictions. Although in both movies we knew the quest would succeed, I was tense through much of Free Solo, but never here.