The Rescue

Following up on their Oscar-winning documentary about rock climbing, ‘Free Solo’, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have once again delivered a riveting, edge-of-your-seat documentary. The subject this time is the nerve-wracking, 18-day nightmare endured by 12 young soccer players and their coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, a seemingly hopeless situation that made headlines worldwide. Mixing archival news footage with talking heads and the participation of the two British men who executed the rescue—they re-enact it here—the co-directors have fashioned one of the best films of the year. ‘The outcome is right there in the title. And yet the new documentary “The Rescue”… is still a stressful, suspenseful experience. It’s other things, too—affirming, truthful, funny, macabre and unembellished—but it achieves something extraordinarily difficult for a global news story that ended three years ago: It makes you feel like you’re there.’—Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press