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A lot of work went into creating the technical aspects of “Thirteen Lives,” from Molly Hughes ’ skillful recreation of the interiors of Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave to its two lead actors getting SCUBA-certified so they could dive without much use of stunt doubles. The underwater cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom is impressive and the sound mix is often quite eerie in its depiction of water and cave noises. All this effort is for naught. Ron Howard ’s latest directorial effort is a tedious, mediocre retelling of the June, 2018 incident where 12 Thai adolescents and their soccer coach were trapped in a flooded cave for 18 days. They were rescued by an international crew of cave divers led by Rick Stanton and John Volanthen.

If you have that old, familiar feeling after reading that synopsis, you’ve seen either the 2019 fiction film “ The Cave ” or last year’s spectacular documentary, “ The Rescue .” The latter film haunted my viewing of “Thirteen Lives” in a way that may seem unfair. Granted, there have been several excellent documentaries that led to less-than-stellar fictional movies with major stars, but that usually occurred after some time has passed. There’s barely a year between Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’s version and Ron Howard’s, so it remained far too fresh in my mind. Making matters worse, “The Rescue” is 40 minutes shorter and has re-enactments with, and footage shot by, the actual divers who participated in saving the Wild Boar soccer team. It is also harrowing to the point where I, with my fear of drowning and my claustrophobia, considered leaving the theater.

Not once did I flinch during “Thirteen Lives,” despite spending an equal amount of time watching underwater sequences in passageways so narrow that one person can barely fit through, let alone ferry another person to safety. Despite an occasional map being superimposed on the screen, viewers are barely afforded a sense of geography. Howard and his editor, James Wilcox kill the momentum and tension by often cutting between what’s going on underground and the numerous attempts to divert water above. Since they fail to establish any sort of consistency in the timeline between these events, we’re left asking “is this happening at the same time?” It’s disorienting and distracts us from the drama.

Perhaps that distraction is intentional, as William Nicholson ’s script is full of two-dimensional versions of the real people involved. “Thirteen Lives” relies on its star power to do the heavy lifting of character development. Real-life divers Rick Stanton, Chris Jewell, John Volanthen, Jason Mallinson and Dr. Richard Harris are played by Viggo Mortensen , Tom Bateman , Colin Farrell , Paul Gleeson and Joel Edgerton , respectively. Each actor is given one characteristic, whether it’s doing an unexpected accent, being a worried father or playing an intensely grumpy realist who doesn’t have faith in his own ability to save these poor kids. That last quirk belongs to Mortensen, who scowls so much he evoked the drill sergeant he played in “ G.I. Jane .”

Since Howard and company know how easily “Thirteen Lives” can sink into a White savior narrative, we occasionally spend time with the Thai Navy SEALs who are also trying to rescue the team and the farmers who are willing to destroy their rice crops in order to aid in the rescue. They are all written as flatly as the White characters, though there is some entertaining friction between the military leaders and the government, represented here by lame duck Governor Narongsak ( Sahajak Boonthanakit ). Boonthanakit’s performance is kind of fascinating, a dance between acting like a man in power and expressing the weary notion that he’s being positioned to take the fall should the rescue go awry.

When not in the caves with the divers, Howard is content to tell this story in such a drab, ho-hum, overly respectful fashion that it starts to drag. We should be emotionally invested in the outcome, yet we barely get to know any of the trapped players or their coach. “Thirteen Lives” begins with scenes of the team practicing then riding to the cave for that poorly timed descent that coincides with the monsoon that will entrap them. In those moments, the film appears to be centering its focus on them. It’s a while before we even meet any of the White actors playing the divers. And yet, the teammates are reduced to mere victims, pawns in their own story. The only parent we hear from in any regard is played by Pattrakorn Tungsupakul. As the mother of a boy named Chai, she’s given very little to do besides wander around in the background praying and looking worried.

To give one example of how Howard misses the opportunity to rivet us on an emotional level, watch the scene where Rick and John first encounter the thirteen people trapped in the cave. As soon as the divers emerge from the water, the reveal that everyone is alive is completely botched. The establishing shot of everyone is uncomfortably garish. Rather than offer immediate support, the divers start taking videos of these starving folks who have been in the cave for ten days. This should have been an emotional shot in the heart, yet it feels as cold as all that cave water.

The best visual of how “Thirteen Lvives” fails on any level other than technical may be the scenes where the divers execute a plan of rescue by anesthetizing the teens, tying their hands and feet so they don’t struggle if they awaken, and them navigating them to safety. We should have more of an attachment to each of these people, and to the divers who make this possible. Instead, the process just looks like an assembly line spitting out product; it’s mechanical and efficient, but completely devoid of feeling. Just like this film.

In theaters today and on Prime Video August 5th.

Odie Henderson

Odie "Odienator" Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire  here .

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Film credits.

Thirteen Lives (2022)

Rated PG-13 for some strong language and unsettling images.

147 minutes

Viggo Mortensen as Richard Stanton

Colin Farrell as John Volanthen

Joel Edgerton as Dr. Richard Harris

Sukollawat Kanarot as Saman Kunan

Theerapat Sajakul as Anand

Sahajak Boonthanakit as Narongsak Osatanakorn

Vithaya Pansringarm as General Anuphond

Teeradon Supapunpinyo as Ekkaphon "Ek" Chanthawong

Nophand Boonyai as Thanet Natisri

Tom Bateman as Chris Jewell

Paul Gleeson as Jason Mallinson

Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Vernon Unsworth

Paula Garcia as Spanish Reporter

Writer (story by)

• Don MacPherson
• William Nicholson

Cinematographer

• Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
• James Wilcox
• Benjamin Wallfisch

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‘Thirteen Lives’ Review: Dramatizing the Near Impossible

The harrowing rescue of a Thai youth soccer team is the subject of Ron Howard’s latest drama.

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By Amy Nicholson

Ron Howard’s “Thirteen Lives,” a feat of endurance about the 18-day effort to rescue a youth soccer team from Thailand’s Tham Luang cave in 2018, gazes in awe at two unassuming men: Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, whom the actors Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell play with their magnetism dialed down until these charismatic movie stars resemble spit wads left to air-dry. The two rumpled and graying Brits don’t look or act notably heroic. “I don’t even like kids,” Rick says — thankfully not in front of the press, whose flashbulbs both men recoil from like photosensitive bats.

Yet, Rick and John are among the few cave divers with the physical and mental stamina to bear a six-hour scuba-suited spelunking through narrow crannies in next to no visibility as fanged stalactites scrape against their air tanks. No wonder neither they nor William Nicholson’s script, based on a story by him and Don MacPherson, have time for nonsense. This is a pragmatic recounting of a nigh-impossible mission: first, to find the trapped boys, and harder still, to swim them out.

Howard doesn’t waste energy seeding doubt about the outcome. (The operation succeeds, with two casualties.) He’s gripped by the mechanics of how the divers pulled it off, a feat that needs very little goosing from the composer Benjamin Wallfisch’s rattling cymbals to play like a thriller. Watching Rick and John’s team (which expands to include parts played by Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman and Paul Gleeson) swim back and forth towing the boys — “packages,” Rick calls them — is exhausting. The audience spends an hour of the running time experiencing the primal terror of being underground, underwater, and — in a detail left out of initial news reports — under sedation. Meanwhile, the sound designer Michael Fentum cannily ups the agony with every scrape of helmet on rock and panicked squeak of a cylinder running low on oxygen.

It’s a race against water, which thunders down into sinkholes that flood the cave and kick up dangerous currents. The cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom uses rain the way film noir uses shadows, creating a gloom that washes over the cast. A radio broadcast that monsoon season has hit the region ahead of schedule plays like that horror trope where doomed teenagers hear of a serial killer’s escape from prison.

The film’s villain, Howard implies, is climate change. As for its heroes, the real divers already publicly rejected that role, a demurral that dovetails with the movie’s chariness about reducing an event that involved 5,000 helpers from 17 countries into a white savior story. For balance, Howard includes the local governor (Sahajak Boonthanakit) pressed to make risky decisions, the irrigation engineer (Gerwin Widjaja) organizing a volunteer sandbag squadron, and a group of farmers led by Neungruthai Bungngern-Wynne who agree to destroy their crop for a dicey plan. This display of international unity feels like a thesis Howard doesn’t want to blurt: Wouldn’t it be swell if the planet teamed up to prevent environmental crises before more lives were in peril?

Focusing on the rescuers leaves scant time for the rescued. All we learn of the boys’ struggle is that their coach (Pattrakorn Tungsupakul), a former Buddhist monk, taught them meditation to conquer their fears. Naturally, one starts expecting their Zen practice to factor into the plot, for a child to wake up underwater and calm himself down. It doesn’t, and it’s uncertain if Howard left in that point as a dangling factoid or as a hint that the kids deserved more credit for their own survival.

Thirteen Lives Rated PG-13 for coarse language and creepy images. Running time: 2 hours 27 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime .

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‘thirteen lives’ review: ron howard’s thai cave rescue film is tense but dutiful.

Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell star as divers in Ron Howard's drama about the harrowing 2018 rescue of a Thai soccer team trapped in an underground cave.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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The most haunting frame in Ron Howard ’s Thirteen Lives shows a huddle of bicycles, hurriedly deposited along the metal fence leading into Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand. They belong to the 12 soccer players (between the ages of 11 and 16) and their 25-year-old coach, who decided to go exploring one muggy day in late June 2018. What the group thought would be a brief post-practice excursion on familiar terrain turned into an 18-day nightmare. Hours after the team entered the underground karstic cavern, it flooded.

Most people know the story of the mission to rescue the soccer team, even if they’re hazy on the details. The news galvanized the international community and drew a captivated, sympathetic audience. Thirteen Lives is not the first attempt to tell the tale. In 2019, Tom Waller premiered his uneven docudrama The Cave at the Busan International Film Festival. Two years later, directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ( Free Solo ) unveiled The Rescue , a riveting documentary that includes hours of never-before-seen footage.

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Ron howard, mike bloomberg, faiza j. saeed set for paley center honors (exclusive), 'sugar' star anna gunn on "true gent" colin farrell, 'breaking bad' reunions and rian johnson's unforgettable gesture, thirteen lives.

Release date: Friday, July 29 (MGM); Friday, August 5 (Amazon Prime Video) Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Sahajak Boonthanakit Director: Ron Howard Screenwriters: William Nicholson (screenplay by), Don MacPherson (story by)

With Thirteen Lives , Howard, along with storywriters Don MacPherson and William Nicholson, attempts his own worthy retelling by focusing on the boys, their families and the coordination needed among the volunteers to save them. It’s a restrained rendering of the events, a drama that plays, at times, like a documentary. But if Howard’s decision to spotlight the Thai characters in this harrowing narrative is a sound one, there’s an unfamiliar stiffness and self-consciousness in the director’s approach — an inability to marry the fast-paced, no-nonsense heroics that are his strong suit with more emotionally textured storytelling. The resulting awkwardness prevents the movie, for all the surreal tension and bravery it depicts, from feeling urgent or surprising.

The opening shots of the 12 boys engrossed in a soccer game positions Thirteen Lives as a movie about the heart and humanity of its subjects. The nail-biting action of the rescue takes a back seat as we watch the lives of the boys, hours before they ventured into the cave, unfold. Their scenes of play are intercut with establishing shots of bulbous clouds sailing across the sky, an outline of the mountainous landscape and the wind blowing through verdant farmland. (Principal shooting took place in Australia because of COVID-19 restrictions, but these glimpses of the natural world, along with clips of the townspeople, were taken in Thailand.)

Howard focuses the beginning of the film on nearby town Pong Pha and its inhabitants instead of the five white divers  — Rick Stanton ( Viggo Mortensen ), James Volanthen ( Colin Farrell ), Dr. Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), Chris Jewell (Tom Bateman) and Jason Mallinson (Paul Gleeson) — credited with saving the boys. It’s a move that keeps Thirteen Lives from completely succumbing to a white savior narrative.

Howard portrays the tension between Rick and James — the first of the international cave divers to arrive in the rural province — and the Thai Navy SEAL officials with clarity. The two Brits are outsiders, and their initial attempts to help are met with resistance. Rick’s cantankerous attitude and skepticism toward the Pong Pha residents’ traditions are aggravating factors. James somewhat reluctantly mediates between his longtime friend and the Thai officials, tempering Rick’s pessimism with his own optimistic sentiments.

DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s ( Memoria, Call Me By Your Name ) unobtrusive camerawork shields the film from the domineering and condescending approach so often on display when a white auteur meets a subject of color. Yet some occasional perspective shifts detract from the film’s overall sensitivity. When Rick and James, after hours of swimming through the narrow, flooded passageways of the cave, happen upon the boys, they’re elated. They begin filming them as proof for those waiting at the entrance. There’s a brief moment or two when we see the boys from the divers’ perspective; the in-your-face manner in which Rick and James record them feels uncomfortable, invasive.

It doesn’t help that the parts of Thirteen Lives that focus on the boys’ families feel too studied, too constricted to fully offset those moments that implicitly yield to the white gaze. Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, who plays a boy named Chai’s mother, can only do so much with a role that asks her to shift frantically between worried looks and fervent prayers. A flicker of the character’s potential is seen when she yells at government officials for not giving the parents enough answers. I wish more time were devoted to slices of this story or even scenes of how the boys survived, rather than the discomfort the divers felt with the press.

Elaborating on the emotional lives of the parents might have also better paced the narrative, which moves somewhat tediously — uncharacteristically so, considering Howard’s usual preference for brisk and efficient storytelling — until the rescue operation. Once the international team of divers is assembled, Thirteen Lives  wakes up. The suspense inherent in planning and executing the rescue stimulates a sleepy story, energizing the relationships among the divers, especially Mortensen and Farrell’s characters. The fraternal and competitive layers between them are illuminated as they take to the water, navigating the dark cave tunnels.

Like the Bifurto Abyss in Il Buco , Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino’s remarkable film about a group of young speleologists exploring one of the world’s deepest caves, Tham Luang Nang Non is its own character — a force to be tackled with patience and wit. Production designer Molly Hughes’ recreation of the cave interior enlivens the latter half of the film, which unfolds in its twisted passageways. Sound is equally key to the film’s varying effectiveness. When Howard pulls back on Benjamin Wallfisch’s otherwise fine score, the dive scenes gain greater potency. The noises of water colliding with the walls of the cave or labored breathing through an oxygen mask conjure the suffocating nature of swimming through unknown territory more vividly than any music could.

Above ground, the volunteers who come to help save the boys are also busy at work. Howard seriously and faithfully captures other roles that were critical to the rescue, from the medical staff stationed at the entrance to the Thai engineer who corralled local farmers to help pump rainwater out of the cave. Even now, years later, that level of teamwork is breathtaking, and Howard’s choice to chronicle those efforts gives Thirteen Lives its own kind of staying power.

Full credits

Distributor: Metro Goldwyn Mayer, United Artists Releasing Production companies: Bron Creative, Imagine Entertainment, Storyteller, Magnolia MAE Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Sahajak Boonthanakit Director: Ron Howard Screenwriters: William Nicholson (screenplay by) (story by), Don MacPherson (story by) Producers: P.J. van Sandwijk, p.g.a; Gabrielle Tana, p.g.a; Karen Lunder, p.g.a.; William M. Connor; Brian Grazer, p.g.a; Ron Howard, p.g.a Executive producers: Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Jason Cloth, Aaron L. Gilbert, Michael Lesslie, Marie Savare Cinematographer: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom Production designer: Molly Hughes Costume designer: Tess Schofield Editor: James Wilcox Composer: Benjamin Wallfisch Casting director: Nikki Barrett

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Thirteen Lives Reviews

The movie is a prime example of history repeating itself, to show that white saviour narratives are disappointing and take the focus away from the main objective.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

You stay for the cinematic underwater sequences and Viggo Mortensen splashing around in a wetsuit, but the rest flounders because of its direction, poor writing, and lack of psychological insight.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 29, 2023

It succeeds in what it’s trying to do, and I definitely felt that it was worth the watch, along with the time I invested into viewing it.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 19, 2023

Told with urgency and sensitivity, the film diligently captures the massive scope of the international rescue effort — with all of its logistical, psychological, and sociopolitical complications — while maintaining a boots-on-the-ground intimacy.

Full Review | Jan 27, 2023

Imagine exploring a cave (Tham Luang) in the beautiful mountains of Thailand’s Chiang Rai region, delving into its depths, only to be denied an exit due to the sudden, ceiling-high water eruption, then waiting weeks before any hope of rescue.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2023

This is a fact-based account that holds true to everything I remember from the documentary, so it's not playing with the details as much as manipulating the emotions to adhere to more conventional narrative beats.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 13, 2023

The story itself is heart-pounding (and heart-tugging) enough, so Howard allows the actors to stay subtle and nearly fade into the background, never pulling focus for the audience from the dire circumstances of the situation.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 12, 2023

...the story was told better by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi in the 2021 documentary The Rescue, making Howard’s film the equivalent of an English-language remake of a film already done better in another language.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 2, 2023

I saw someone say that this is like Ron Howard made a Clint Eastwood movie, and yes.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2022

Thirteen Lives is certainly watchable and the diving sequences are excruciatingly tense and brilliantly delivered, but if you know the story, there's little else to find here.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2022

Ron Howard offers a compelling depiction of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue...the film pivots from a thrilling depiction of real events, to a moving meditation on the power of community.

Full Review | Dec 2, 2022

When Thirteen Lives directs its energies toward illustrating the impossibility of the divers’ mission, the film is solidly compelling.

This is a really good movie, full of drama and heroism, but I couldn't help comparing it to National Geographic's documentary film depicting the same rescue. This one just isn't quite as good.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Dec 2, 2022

A claustrophobic, suspenseful survival film that knows how to tell its story, Thirteen Lives doesn’t get boring once. The characters have a clear objective, and you will be drawn into the mystery of how they will succeed in their goal.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 30, 2022

Ron Howard plays all the right notes in this retelling of the dramatic rescue of a boys’ football team from a flooded cave-in.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 30, 2022

“Thirteen Lives” is an expertly made hollow shell. It’s like looking at a department store window with nothing in it.

Full Review | Nov 26, 2022

Thirteen Lives is a beautiful depiction of the power of working together for hope.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 21, 2022

The element of breath, the play of water and air, is seamlessly combined into the narrative.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2022

The 13 lives the title references might as well be sacks of flour, for all the film cares about developing them.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 10, 2022

There’s little in Thirteen Lives that isn’t a matter of public record or treated with more urgency and tension in The Rescue.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 3, 2022

Review: Thai cave rescue proves to be affecting drama in tension-filled ‘Thirteen Lives’

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An extraordinary story of nerve-wracking heroism gets an appealingly straightforward, propulsive retelling in Ron Howard’s “Thirteen Lives,” which dutifully dramatizes the risky 2018 operation that saved a dozen boys and their soccer coach from the deepest recesses of the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand.

As real-life cases of ticking-clock peril go, this one had everyone by the heart and throat as it unfolded, a monsoon season misadventure that spurred a remarkable coalition, locally and globally, of steadfast, industrious and ingenious souls: sacrificing farmers, rain diverters, Thai Navy SEALS and cave divers. Howard, comfortable with canvases big and small, knows from this kind of all-hands-on-deck story — its dramatic contours and gritty details — having made one of the great averting-disaster movies with “Apollo 13.”

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What’s trickier, however, about getting “Thirteen Lives” right is that a less conscientious filmmaker might have foregrounded a white-savior chronicle, considering the significant technical expertise of British divers Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) and Australian anesthetist Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), whose extraction method was, literally and figuratively, a shot in the dark.

The life-affirming reality of what transpired is, of course, a bigger narrative, and thankfully, Howard and screenwriter William Nicholson understand that. They’ve smartly crafted a chronologically precise, wide-view version emphasizing the community of problem-solvers on hand — including a pressured Gov. Narongsak (Sahajak Boonthanakit), groundwater engineer Thanet Natisr (Nophand Boonyai), intrepid soldier Saman (Weir Sukollawat Kanarot), and literally thousands of helpers — whose efforts lay the groundwork for the success of a band of hobbyist explorers who happened to be white male foreigners.

There’s a diversity of temperament too, when you factor in the nicked pride of Thai Navy SEAL leader Capt. Arnont Sureewong (Tui Thiraphat Sajakul) who must widen his notion of teamwork, and Mortensen’s convincing portrayal of a cultural outsider whose irritableness when dealing with others is never terribly far from the surface. (Are we surprised a dude who chooses exploring remote, cramped underwater worlds as a leisure pursuit might prefer solitude to socializing?)

Howard’s version of this incredible story is also having to compete with the fact that it’s not the only one made by an Oscar-winning filmmaker. “Thirteen Lives” follows last year’s documentary “The Rescue,” from “Free Solo” directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, which was an illuminating, pulse-pounding knockout, built around key players’ riveting first-person accounts (except, due to rights issues, that of the kids).

Invariably, the carefully naturalistic approach that “Thirteen Lives” takes keeps it from being as pointedly, emotionally walloping as “The Rescue.” But what Howard does with his solid cast, steady pacing and seamless mix of location verisimilitude and Molly Hughes’ cave-recreated production design is still plenty powerful whether you’re familiar with the operation’s details or not: he drops us right into a charged, time-sensitive atmosphere of hope and focus, and lets the unvarnished tension of a mission with no room for error play across everyone’s faces as the story propels forward. On that visceral level too, it’s possibly the wettest movie in recent memory, from first torrential downpour to last, with cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s claustrophobic, lamplit cave tunnel sequences suitably thick with dank and darkness.

Howard may never put his thumb on the scale to juice the emotions, but affecting moments of vulnerability still pierce the selflessness: the sense of guilt the boys’ coach touchingly expresses, one mother’s fear that her family’s statelessness will be an issue and the reasonable worry across all the main players — especially when the daring rescue is set in motion — that’s like a hot potato nobody wants to hold for too long.

There’s even room for subtle spirituality in how the specifics of the boys’ passage to safety relates to the mythical sleeping princess shown being prayed to by locals and believed to hold power over the mountain. “Thirteen Lives” may be a vivid rescue procedural first and foremost, but it’s also a testament to the guardian spirit possible in any of us.

'Thirteen Lives'

In English and Thai with English subtitles Running time: 2 hours, 27 minutes Rated: PG-13, for some strong language and unsettling images Playing: Starts July 29, AMC The Grove; available Aug. 5 on Amazon Prime Video

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Thirteen lives, common sense media reviewers.

Teamwork, ingenuity shine in excellent, intense true story.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

A solution exists for every problem, but finding i

Everyone depicted here is willing to sacrifice som

Takes place in Thailand. Thai culture, settings, g

Depicts the true story of a real-life event that p

Language includes "ass," "bulls--t," "s--t," and "

Some logos on T-shirts.

A couple of adult characters smoke in a tense situ

Parents need to know that Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard, recounts the true events of the against-all-odds rescue of a boys' soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. Just as it was in real life, the peril is intense, so you'll probably want to let kids know ahead of watching that the boys…

Positive Messages

A solution exists for every problem, but finding it may require creative thinking, trust, extensive collaboration, and a great deal of risk. Heroes are brave, and what makes them successful is having acquired practical knowledge. Clear themes of teamwork and perseverance.

Positive Role Models

Everyone depicted here is willing to sacrifice something for the sake of trying to save the boys, even knowing that the chances of success are slim. The adult coach trapped with the kids keeps them calm, teaching them mindfulness skills; the kids are grateful, kind, polite, and patient, even in the worst circumstances. More than 10,000 volunteers from all over the world help of their own volition, sometimes putting their own well-being in danger. Thai Navy Seals and regional governor care deeply, demonstrate a different kind of courage by accepting the responsibility of risk at the potential cost of their own reputations. Farmers agree to lose a year's worth of income to help.

Diverse Representations

Takes place in Thailand. Thai culture, settings, government, way of life, and spiritual beliefs are incorporated in a way that's relatable and respectful. Every Thai person is depicted positively; wherever conflict arises, the misgivings in trying to make positive choices in an impossible situation are made clear. People with diverse backgrounds come together from all over the world for a worthy purpose. While rescue was a team effort between Thai leaders and other countries, including U.S. and China, the people who ultimately conduct the daring rescue are all White men from countries like the U.K. and Australia.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Depicts the true story of a real-life event that puts the lives of 12 children and several adults in intense peril. Rocks fall on people. A blast throws a body across the space, leading to injury. Drowning occurs on camera. Blood from scrapes, cuts, and slamming into rocks.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "ass," "bulls--t," "s--t," and "pain in the butt."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

A couple of adult characters smoke in a tense situation. Kids are anesthetized with pills and shots, including ketamine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard , recounts the true events of the against-all-odds rescue of a boys' soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. Just as it was in real life, the peril is intense, so you'll probably want to let kids know ahead of watching that the boys survive. But one diver does perish, and his drowning is shown on camera. Like the 2021 documentary about the same events, The Rescue , this film depicts teamwork and striking bravery. Every person in the movie is portrayed as a hero or role model, working through communication barriers and cultural differences to come up with a solution. There are many positive takeaways, including the idea that pulling off the impossible comes from combining a range of knowledge and skills. Specifically, viewers are likely to gain an appreciation for geology and engineering. Expect to see a couple of adults smoking, and kids are given sedatives and ketamine through needles and pills without parental consent. Language isn't frequent but includes "s--t" and "ass." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 8 parent reviews

Strong language

What's the story.

In 2018, a Thai boys' soccer team and their coach were trapped in the Tham Luang cave network when unexpected rain flooded their exit. Concerned for their safety, the world turned its attention to the global rescue efforts with the hope that the team of uniquely qualified volunteers would be able to save the THIRTEEN LIVES, despite impossible circumstances.

Is It Any Good?

Superheroes may dominate kids' entertainment, but director Ron Howard superbly showcases real heroes who pull off an extraordinary feat to save lives. The plight of the Wild Boars boys' soccer team -- trapped deep in a cave with no feasible method of escape -- seems ripped straight from the comics, where only a superpowered caped crusader could save them. There's even a supernatural element: According to folklore, the spirit of the mythical Princess Jao Mae Nang Non guards the cave, her statue marking the entrance, and locals believe she had a hand in the surprise flash flood. Howard's retelling is more grounded than an Avengers movie but no less sensational -- and far more impactful. These heroes are authentically brave, powered by decades of acquired specific knowledge, calculated collaboration, and selflessness.

While the documentary The Rescue , released to critical accolades in 2021, covers the same remarkable events factually and thoroughly, Howard's well-crafted scripted version is a great choice for tweens and teens. He strikes the perfect balance throughout, keeping the musical score light (or sometimes nonexistent) in the tensest situations so as not to manipulate viewers' emotions. The actual events, failures, and disagreements are re-created with honesty and respect for all of the participants. Howard discounts no one: The contributions from the boys' parents, farmers, a Hindu priest, engineers, the Thai province's governor, and even the trapped children themselves are shown to help the rescue effort as much as the divers' efforts. And Howard does an excellent job of establishing cross-cultural understanding and relatability, showing a deep sensitivity for Thai beliefs and values. Thanks to all of that -- and the fact that the rescue subjects range in age from 11 to 16 -- viewers in the same age bracket will be able to connect to this amazing real-life story and will be better for it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about collaboration. How does Thirteen Lives demonstrate that the rescue didn't just rely on the divers but also on the thousands of volunteers offering their skills? Why is teamwork an essential life skill?

Describe how bravery is demonstrated by each of the players. Put yourself in their shoes: Would you have made the same decision, if you didn't know the outcome? Why is courage an important character trait? Why do you think obstacles or difficulties are called "discourage"?

If you've seen The Rescue , how does Thirteen Lives differ? What's different about storytelling in a documentary versus in a dramatic film?

How are perseverance , integrity , self-control , humility , empathy , compassion , and gratitude demonstrated throughout the film? Could the rescue have been pulled off without these elements?

What makes someone a hero? What skills and knowledge do you have that could be used to help in an emergency?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 29, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : August 5, 2022
• Cast : Colin Farrell , Viggo Mortensen , Joel Edgerton
• Director : Ron Howard
• Studio : United Artists Releasing
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Great Boy Role Models , History
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 142 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some strong language and unsettling images
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : December 13, 2022

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Thirteen lives review: thai cave rescue gets detailed & gripping retelling.

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We're worried about francis ford coppola's new movie after watching the first clip, vin diesel's fast & furious replacement role is the exact opposite of dominic toretto.

As far as inspirational true stories go, few can probably top the story behind the rescue of 12 boys and one man from a flooded cave. The unbelievable nature of the infamous Tham Luang rescue captivated people around the globe, and now  director Ron Howard has offered his spin on it with  Thirteen Lives . As the man who brought the gripping  Apollo 13 to life, Howard is one of the filmmakers best suited to tackle this story — and he does so with skill and sensitivity. While certain elements feel underdeveloped, Thirteen Lives is an affecting look at one of the most incredible events of the past decade.

In 2018, the world was stunned by the news that twelve members of a Thai soccer team — comprised of boys aged 11 to 16 — and their coach had been trapped inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave by rising water levels when monsoon season came early.  Thirteen Lives tells the harrowing story of how aid came from around the world, with everyone from Thai Navy SEALs to rescue divers from England (most prominently played by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell) getting involved. As the days stretched on, hope of rescue dwindled. However, as anyone who followed the news story knows, this is a situation that goes far beyond what anyone expected.

Related: A Love Song Review: Sparse Western Romance Is Saved By Dickey's Performance

At a lengthy two-and-a-half hours long,  Thirteen Lives  certainly does a good job of conveying just how long this rescue effort took. Spanning more than two weeks and consisting of countless hours-long dives, the actual Tham Luang cave rescue was an arduous process, and one can argue that  Thirteen Lives ' lengthy runtime really highlights that. To be sure, most of what happens onscreen is engrossing and can help justify the movie's length. Howard's recreation of the dives themselves, comprised of impressive underwater camerawork from DP Simon Christidis and unnervingly realistic cave sets created by production designer Molly Hughes, successfully highlight the dangers of the Tham Luang cave system. Audience members might take a few extra breaths during these scenes just to remind themselves that they can. At the same time, sections in the middle of  Thirteen Lives  can get a bit repetitive as Howard and screenwriter William Nicholson (working from a story by him and Don MacPherson) dig into the nitty gritty of the rescue efforts.

Still, this detailed approach to the story gives  Thirteen Lives the opportunity to highlight certain parts of the event that might be overlooked when people recall the news coverage. For example, engineer Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai) worked outside of the cave to divert millions of gallons of water away. Though  Thirteen Lives doesn't spend as much time with these characters as it does with the divers, it manages to give a thorough look at the operation itself. Unfortunately, it does this at the expense of other figures involved with this saga, namely the families of the trapped boys. Pattrakorn Tungsupakul gives a strong and emotional performance as one of the mothers awaiting news, but her overall characterization is quite limited. Beyond her portrayal, few loved ones make an impact. Howard has instead chosen to put far more focus on the divers and Navy SEALs who orchestrated the rescue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However,  Thirteen Lives could've been made stronger with a more well-rounded approach.

As the two English divers who get the most attention, Mortensen and Farrell do a good job of giving their characters — Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, respectively — more depth than the script does. Mortensen's Stanton is more cynical than Volanthen, and the  Lord of the Rings alum effectively depicts the diver's conflicted emotions. Farrell's Volanthen gets to be more earnest and hopeful, and the two make a solid onscreen duo. Tui Thiraphat Sajakul, as Navy SEAL Captain Arnont Sureewong, skillfully walks the line between respect and frustration; though he wishes for the boys to be rescued, the arrival of Stanton and Volanthen causes some friction.  Thirteen Lives pays respect to both sides, effectively demonstrating that the successful rescue went beyond the efforts of two people. The boys themselves don't necessarily get a lot of time to make an impact as individuals, but that is by design and still works to the movie's advantage.

Under Howard's efficient direction,  Thirteen Lives is a straightforward portrayal of an incredible true story . It does justice to those involved, and while it might've benefited from a deeper dive into what happened outside of the rescue operation, it still knows how to tug at the heartstrings. Those who don't know the finer details of how the boys and their coach were safely removed from Tham Luang will find this to be an insightful watch, while even viewers who closely followed the news reports might find some surprises within the overall proceedings. All told,  Thirteen Lives is a solid and compelling watch that stands as a testament to people's resilient spirits.

More: Watch The Thirteen Lives Trailer

Thirteen Lives   releases in select theaters Friday, July 29 and begins streaming on Prime Video Friday, August 5. It is 142 minutes long and rated PG-13 for some strong language and unsettling images.

Our Rating:

• Movie Reviews
• 3 star movies

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

‘Thirteen Lives’: Thai cave rescue film offers thrills without frills

Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen play real-life rescuers in Ron Howard’s effective thriller, based on actual events

The dramatic true saga of the Thai boys’ soccer team trapped in a flooded cave, and their rescue by an international team of divers — including, most notably, a handful of mostly British volunteers — riveted the world during the summer of 2018. Four years later, the story’s theme of overcoming great odds continues to fascinate filmmakers and audiences.

Last fall, there was “ The Rescue ,” a spellbinding documentary by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the husband-and-wife duo behind the mountain-climbing docs “ Meru ” and the Oscar-winning “ Free Solo .” And this week brings not one but two features inspired by the same story: “Cave Rescue,” a reconstruction, available on demand and in select theaters, in which diver Jim Warny plays himself, and Amazon’s “Thirteen Lives,” directed by Ron Howard (“ We Feed People ”) and starring Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen as divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton — the same two divers who pretty much stole the show in “The Rescue.” (On Sept. 22, Netflix will debut its own six-episode miniseries, “Thai Cave Rescue,” told from the point of view of the boys.)

To be honest, I will probably watch them all.

It’s not that “The Rescue” isn’t tough competition. Chin and Vasarhelyi laid out the story — told largely via interviews with Volanthen and Stanton, and mixing archival video footage from the Thai cave with reenactments shot in a pool in England — with a gripping intensity that is hard to beat. But Howard’s film does exactly what it needs (and sets out) to do: immerse you in the nail-biting events and the claustrophobic setting — dark, cold and muddy-water-filled caves and crevices, many of which are studded, top and bottom, by daggerlike stalactites and stalagmites. “Thirteen Lives” vividly re-creates both those physical dangers and what exactly was at stake, with a cast of young Thai actors.

But’s the film’s true genius, if that’s not too strong a word, is in centering the action on Farrell’s and Mortensen’s characters, after the scenario shifts from the ineffectual efforts of the ill-prepared Thai Navy SEALs to divers recommended by Vern Unsworth (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), an expat British cave explorer who lived near the cave. (You may recall that Elon Musk publicly insulted Unsworth after Unsworth criticized Musk’s plan to build a mini-submarine for the rescue.) Joel Edgerton also has a prominent role, as an Australian diver and anesthesiologist who played a critical — and, for some who may not recall the story’s details, surprising — part in the rescue.

Farrell and Mortensen do an admirable job of capturing not just the quirky personalities and eccentricities of Volanthen and Stanton but their nerdy appeal: They’re elite yet amateur heroes who, over a lifetime of practicing a strange niche hobby, have become the best in the world at what they do for fun (which, it should be noted, is something most sane people wouldn’t do for any amount of money). It’s made clear in “The Rescue” that these guys are, like elite mountain climbers, a — how shall I put this? — special breed. In short: They both become more calm, centered and focused under circumstances that would immediately freak the rest of us out.

“Thirteen Lives” is a solid achievement, technically and dramatically, using a ticktock timeline and periodically superimposing on-screen maps of the miles-long cave system to build tension. Like its protagonists, it isn’t flashy but is all business. It gets the job done with a minimum of histrionics, yet a mountain of suspense.

PG-13. Available on Amazon. Contains some strong language and unsettling images. In Thai, English and French without subtitles. 147 minutes.

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• DVD & Streaming

Thirteen Lives

Content caution.

In Theaters

• July 29, 2022
• Viggo Mortensen as Richard Stanton; Colin Farrell as John Volanthen; Joel Edgerton as Richard Harris; Tom Bateman as Chris Jewell; Sukollawat Kanarot as Saman Kunan; Thiraphat Sajakul as Anand; Sahajak Boonthanakit as Narongsak Osatanakorn; Vithaya Pansringarm as General Anupong Paochinda; Teeradon Supapunpinyo as Ekkaphon Chanthawong; Nophand Boonyai as Thanet Natisri; Paul Gleeson as Jason Mallinson; Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Vernon Unsworth; U Gambira as Kruba Boonchum

Home Release Date

• August 5, 2022

Distributor

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Prime Video

Movie Review

Water, geologists tell us, is how many caves came to be.

Take the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. Water slowly carved the natural tunnel inch by inch, mile by mile. Mineral-rich water gathered on its ceiling, forming stalactites; that same water dripped to the floor, building stalagmites. Even now, the water is still at work there—building up, tearing down.

And water cares not with what, or who, might be in its way.

In late June of 2018, a dozen young soccer players and the team’s assistant coach wanted to kill some time between soccer practice and a birthday party. The Tham Luang cave, just a short bike ride away, seemed perfect. And while the cave was known to flood—it was always closed for months during Thailand’s July-to-November monsoon season—the skies were clear and blue. Besides, the monsoons were still at least a week away.

But water cares not.

Soon after the boys entered the caverns, the skies opened up, drenching the jungles and soaking the fields. Water found hundreds of holes along the surface of Tham Luang, draining into the caves as if through a sieve. Dry walkways turned into rivers, rock rooms turned into lakes. And still the water rose—pressing to the ceiling, squeezing into crevice and cranny. Rising. Rising.

Hours later, worried parents rushed to the cave. Thirteen bicycles were lined up by the cave entrance.

The days to come found the land around the cave greatly changed. It, too, was flooded, but with people. Parents. Volunteers. Officials. Navy SEALs. All are desperate to get to the boys, be they alive or dead.

But only a handful of people have the skill to get to them, through the cave’s bewildering tunnels and swirling currents.

British divers John Volanthen and Richard Stanton have years of cave-diving experience and notched dozens of rescue missions. They’ve dealt with darkness, pushed through currents, squeezed through the tiniest of cracks in many a flooded cave. If anyone can get to the boys, they can.

But as John and Richard well know, reaching the boys and saving them are very different things.

And water cares not if they do.

Positive Elements

Thirteen Lives is based on a true rescue operation that captured the world’s attention in 2018. And this story has plenty of heroes to go around.

The film focuses especially on John and Richard. While they know what they’re doing, these two divers also know how dangerous it is: Every time they dive, they’re risking their lives. They’re joined by plenty of other divers as well—some hailing from inside Thailand. While these would-be rescuers do subtly squabble for turf at times, all are primarily concerned with the welfare of the boys inside the cave. And as time goes on, everyone settles into a deeply cooperative and collaborative mindset.

All the divers’ heroism would’ve been nullified, of course, if the cave’s waters kept rising. They didn’t, and that’s because a volunteer water engineer rallied countless farmers and villagers from around the region to divert rainwater from the myriad of holes draining into the caves. It was a massive undertaking, and sacrificial in its own right: When farmers are told that their fields will be flooded and their crops will be ruined, they still give their assent. “For the boys,” one says.

Even politicians get into the act. The local governor—who had already been sacked before the crisis and was in his last week at his post—is ordered to stay put. It’s suspected the government is looking for a scapegoat should things go wrong. But the governor accepts the responsibility. And when divers approach him with an unorthodox and dangerous plan to rescue the children, he doubles down. If the plan goes awry, he tells the divers that he’ll accept the blame. “If we fail, the failure is mine alone,” he says.

And then, of course, we’d be remiss to leave this section without talking about the boys and their coach. The coach manages to keep a dozen hungry, tired, scared kids and teens focused and calm throughout the ordeal, and the boys themselves show amazing fortitude and courage.

Spiritual Elements

We see plenty of faith at work in Thirteen Lives , but it’s not Christian faith.

Buddhism sits at the top of Thailand’s religions, and we see that especially in the mother of one trapped boy. She attends a Buddhist ceremony and asks a Buddhist cleric—apparently a fairly prominent one—to bless a handful of bracelets. She gives John and Richard each a blessed bracelet. And while Richard’s inclined to chuck the thing, telling John that he’s not “superstitious,” John tells him to put it on: The mother, after all, is watching them. (He does and, after the mission, Richard later sees the bracelet and smiles.) The team’s coach leads his team through meditation sessions to help them stave off hunger. (While the film itself doesn’t go into the coach’s faith, his real-world counterpart was a former Buddhist monk.)

But religion, perhaps especially Eastern streams of religion, can be surprisingly malleable, bringing in other quasi-deities that aren’t exactly orthodox.

Tham Luang itself is a good example of that. The name of the cave (“Tham Luang Nang Non”) means “Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady,” and the mountain range the cave lies under does indeed look like a reclining woman (with a little imagination). The movie doesn’t go into who the “sleeping lady” was, but some legends detail her tragic story.

While that folktale isn’t exactly religious, a shrine—complete with a statue of the legendary lady—graces the entrance, and the boys and the coach all press their hands together and bow a bit to the figure as they head into the cave. Throughout the film, director Ron Howard returns to capture the statue’s enigmatic face at critical moments (when the rains unexpectedly start or stop, for instance), heightening the sense that the “sleeping lady” is a player in this critical drama.

A family member prays to “the spirit of the forest,” asking for forgiveness if the boys had somehow offended it in any way. People regularly greet each other with hands pressed together, as if in prayer.

Sexual Content

Violent content.

The divers are doing very dangerous work. We see just how dangerous when a Thailand former Navy SEAL dies in the cave. He dies of asphyxiation, so while the fatality isn’t bloody, it is disturbing.

Another diver is helped out of the cave after being injured. (We see his hand covered in blood.) A man needing to be rescued from the flooded cave panics on the way out—nearly killing both himself and the diver trying to help him.

And obviously, the threat of death is ever-present. Richard was in fact hoping that, when they reached the boys, they’d be dead: Better that than for them to slowly die as the world watched, unable to save them. Rescue, at the time, seemed impossible. And even as a plan formed, everyone involved expected that some—perhaps most—of the boys would die during the attempt.

Crude or Profane Language

At least two uses of the f-word and about three of the s-word. We also hear “h—,” “p-ss” and the British profanity “bloody” on occasion. Jesus’ name is misused twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We hear people joke about heading to a bar after the rescue.

Doctors and divers give people injections.

Other Negative Elements

[ Spoiler Warning ] All 13 lives are saved in Thirteen Lives —but it requires an unprecedented, and controversial, step.

With little hope of training the boys to do complex cave diving (some kids can’t even swim), Richard and John bring in Richard Harris, an anesthesiologist—asking him if he’d be willing to render the boys unconscious so they can be just carried out like “packages.” Harris balks at first, saying it’s “immoral and unethical,” and likely a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. But with no other feasible options, he eventually agrees. The governor also approves the plan, but he insists that no one be told about the procedure—not even the boys’ worried parents.

The plan works, of course. But for some readers, hiding this truth might be the same as a lie—and a pretty important one at that.

As mentioned, we see just a touch of territoriality as the rescue operation gets underway—but that aspect of the story just underlines the growing collaboration between so many.

We meet plenty of heroes in Thirteen Lives . The real Tham Luang cave rescue featured exponentially more.

About 10,000 people from 17 countries were involved in the real-world rescue operations—most of them unpaid volunteers. For 18 days, they worked to save this youth soccer team as the world watched. And that, alone, is inspiring. We live in an age where divides are so great that we can’t agree on much of anything, and where sometimes even the most basic of issues crumble into political squabbles. To see thousands rally around one common cause—well, that’s the stuff of movies, right? That doesn’t happen in real life anymore.

And yet in this case, it did.

The core story was so inspirational that the rights to it were originally purchased by the Christian studio Pure Flix in 2018. “The bravery and heroism I’ve witnessed is incredibly inspiring,” Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, “so, yes, this will be a movie for us.”

Those rights eventually moved to United Artists Releasing and Amazon Studios. And that leaves us with a question of what might have been .

Had Thirteen Lives come to theaters as a Pure Flix production, we’d certainly be spared the language issues we deal with here. The film’s religious and spiritual elements might’ve been a bit more restrained. It’d be nice if this inspirational story had been made for, truly, all audiences. But its secular makers weren’t so inclined. So, as it is, many parents will balk at taking their kids.

On the flip side, Pure Flix might not have been able to snag two-time Oscar winning director Ron Howard to helm the film. It’s doubtful they would’ve had the money to sign up its powerhouse cast, which includes Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton. And while it’s impossible to know what Pure Flix might’ve done with the story, there’s no question the story we are given is both powerful and inspirational.

Thirteen Lives is not sappy. It’s not melodramatic. It doesn’t need to be. Howard wisely lets the story speak for itself. In its own way, it reminds us of the fragility and sacred beauty of life itself—and insists that its value cannot be found on a spreadsheet.

The water cared not what happened to these kids. But we did. And as we watch this film, we do.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Thirteen Lives movie review: Ron Howard’s outstanding Oscar contender is one of the best films of the year

Thirteen lives movie review: ron howard sheds hollywood hysterics in a pared-down, empowering film about humanity coming together for a common goal. thirteen lives is a balm for these torrid times..

There is a thin line that every fact-based movie needs to walk. It needs to decide, for instance, whether to assume that the viewer is aware of the real-life story behind it, or if they are familiar with only the highlights. Thirteen Lives, the new Ron Howard film based on the (rather recent) Thai cave rescue operation, boldly behaves like you know nothing. And this is its competitive advantage.

The incident was widely covered in the media — two films have already been made about it — and you’d imagine that you know the broad strokes of the story, if not every minute detail. In 2018, 12 boys and their football coach went adventuring in a cave, but were trapped inside after heavy rainfall flooded the labyrinthine underground system. The rescue operation, which was performed by Thai authorities in collaboration with several independent international divers, made global news and lasted over two weeks.

Howard’s film — easily one of his best — offers not only a thrilling, expansive account of the mission, but also presents genuinely surprising new details that, on one occasion especially, were kept deliberately under wraps for ethical reasons. This isn’t strictly true — the terrific documentary The Rescue covered most bases — but it gives Thirteen Lives an added layer of sincerity that is very vital in human dramas such as this.

The movie finds Howard returning to his roots, in a way. Think of it as a cross between Apollo 13 and In the Heart of the Sea — both stories about human survival against all odds. Perhaps it is because of a shift in audience sensibilities or an example of Howard’s own evolution as a director, but Thirteen Lives is the antithesis of rousing Hollywood survival epics. For one, Benjamin Wallfisch’s score is muted to the point of being indistinguishable from the excellent sound design. It whooshes and clangs in synchronicity with the noise of gushing water, and of metal on rocks. Forget emotionally manipulating the audience, it wants to scare us.

This is some real white-knuckle stuff, even though most people would probably know how the story ends. Collaborating for the first time with renowned Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria), Howard’s film is at once sprawling — the exterior sequences feel positively lush — and claustrophobic when the rescue operation begins in earnest. Together with screenwriter William Nicholson, Howard is able to craft an unusually immersive experience by utilising the Top Gun: Maverick approach to writing. By the time the rescue actually begins, for instance, the game-plan has been repeated so often, and the geography of the area defined so well, you know exactly where the obstacles are, and more importantly, where the salvation lies.

Often, it feels like you’re trapped underwater with the divers, the most prominent of whom are played by Viggo Mortensen , Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman. But despite my concerns going into the film, Thirteen Lives doesn’t come across as a White Saviour narrative. Part of the reason behind this is the stripped-back tone, but a bigger reason is that Howard goes out of his way to highlight the contribution of the locals.

There is a moving subplot about nearby farmers who allowed the authorities to flood their land with the water that was being pumped out of the caves, and a deeply engaging parallel operation where a bunch of Thai people meticulously covered sinkholes at the top of the mountain, to stop rain water from further flooding the caves. Howard also keeps highlighting the spirituality that is so intrinsic to Thai culture — there are brief cutaways to monks praying for the boys’ survival, and a quick story about the spiritual relevance of the mountain itself. This offers a nice contrast to the no-nonsense, scientific mentality of the divers. Mortensen’s character, in particular, is vocally dismissive of superstition, and routinely punctures the barest hint of hope with reality checks.

Even if the boys are found, he says, how in the world can they be expected to swim underwater for nearly three hours? Concerns such as this inspire him to summon Edgerton’s character, who arrives on the scene midway through the film’s two-and-a-half hour runtime for a very specific reason. I will not spoil it here.

Thirteen Lives is the kind of film where every beat, every department, every moving part comes together to serve the story. It has the propulsive narrative thrust of The Martian, but also the gritty realism of Captain Phillips. Incidentally, there’s a quick scene right at the end in which the five main divers congregate in a nondescript room immediately after the operation. Bateman delivers a wordless performance so moving that it almost makes you feel ashamed at yourself for missing the usual Hollywood razzle-dazzle.

This is one of the finest films of the year. Not a soul would have bet on the boys — they were doomed — but you can safely put money on Thirteen Lives becoming a major Oscar contender come awards season.

Thirteen Lives Director – Ron Howard Cast – Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Vithaya Pansringarm Rating – 4.5/5

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Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at [email protected]. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More

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Actor Indresh Malik, known for his role as Ustaad ji on the Netflix series Heeramandi, received praise and a reward of Rs 500 from filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali for his moving performance in the 'nath' sequence. The emotional scene, which had no dialogue, left Indresh in tears and howling in joy. Heeramandi, directed by Bhansali, explores the lives of courtesans in undivided India.

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Thirteen Lives Review

29 Jul 2022

Thirteen Lives

In a directing career that kick-started with Tom Hanks falling in love with a fish ( Splash ), Ron Howard ’s interests have gravitated more recently towards true-life stories, both in his dramas ( Frost/Nixon , Rush , Hillbilly Elegy ) and in his newfound predilection for documentary (portraits of The Beatles and Pavarotti, plus Rebuilding Paradise and We Feed People , two films documenting very different disasters). This passion for veracity is present in Thirteen Lives , Howard’s low-key but ultimately engaging re-staging of the rescue of a Thai kids’ football team trapped in a network of caves filling up with water, the documentary feel of which works to both its detriment and success.

It’s a slow, subdued start. There is little in the way of preamble to get us involved with the kids and Howard sensitively eschews showing the minutiae of the team getting trapped. Instead, he is more interested in the response to the crisis in curiously uninvolving scenes depicting the worry of the families, the Royal Thai Navy SEALs’ failed attempt at a rescue, revered monk Kruba Boonchum’s (Nyi Nyi Lwin) arrival to give the people sustenance (Howard overdoes cutaways of tiny Buddhas and religious trinkets), and the machinations of who is politically taking the fall for the disaster. This battle amongst the authorities feels like a ripe area for gripping subterfuge but feels thrown away.

The way in which the team are extracted to safety is precisely etched and gripping.

Things don’t really improve when the movie stars show up. Colin Farrell (doing an off-putting English accent) as John Volanthen and Viggo Mortensen as Richard Stanton both give incredibly muted, presumably-designed-to-be-naturalistic performances as the British cave-divers with true expertise — the only distinctive character trait that either of them displays is a possessive quality over custard creams. (Hopefully Thirteen Lives will do for the biscuit what Avengers Assemble did for shawarma.)

Around the mission to save the kids is the equally important work of Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai), a water engineer who takes matters into his own hands and sets about recruiting locals to divert millions of gallons of water away from the mountainside to stop the caves getting flooded further. It’s a noble endeavour, but not particularly the stuff of memorable drama.

But stick with it and things do improve. Caves, rain and torchlight are always cinematic — there are also some fancy-dan graphics to tell us what chamber the kids/rescuers are in — and Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom finds haunting, textured imagery in stalactite tunnels. Howard is a past master at making you care about an outcome you already know — see Apollo 13 and Rush — and when the film moves into the business end, coinciding with Joel Edgerton turning up as a maverick pal of Stanton and Volanthen, Thirteen Lives delivers.

Howard understands that the juice here is in the details, and the way in which the team are extracted to safety is precisely etched and gripping. You get the sense that this is the reason why Howard wanted to do the movie and, like his itinerant cave-divers, it’s here that all his experience and skills pay off.

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Movies | 28 06 2022

Thirteen Lives (2022): Movie Review, Themes Analyzed & Ending Explained

Thirteen Lives (2022) Review: A sincere effort that favors realism over dramatic reinforcement

Although most of the details are quite expansively covered, Thirteen Lives is elevated with a sincere script that favors realism over dramatic reinforcement, and fine performances from its multi-starrer cast – which includes Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, and Joel Edgerton.

Howard takes a few liberties but mostly remains faithful to the original incident that took place. In Thirteen Lives, there are no heroes or saviors – each one of them is trying to look at the impossible circumstances and make sense of it.

The rescue operators, divers, doctors, along with the governor are unified with the common mission of bringing the thirteen people back from the cave. There are plenty of visually stunning sequences inside the cave, half submerged, presented with recurrent themes of survival and ethical consciousness. The two-hour-long narrative demands an in-depth look to trace the details that you must have missed while watching it.

Thirteen Lives Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Thirteen Lives begins with a sense of impending doom when a bunch of soccer players, all of them children, along with their coach ride carelessly along the road towards the huge cave. They keep their cycles on the stand near the entrance and move inside. It rains heavily for the next couple of hours, and the water trickles down the cave with such ferocity that the boys find it impossible to come out.

Back home, their parents start to panic, and the news spreads fast. The Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn (Sahajak Boonthanakit) and General Anupong Paochinda (Vithaya Pansringarm) arrive, and deploy men to come with a quick rescue plan.

The Danger of bringing back the boys from inside the cave

“If you try to rescue them what you will bring out are dead bodies.” The local Thai inhabitants of the place help the team to stop the percolation of rainfall inside the cave by locating the sinkholes on the top. Pumps are installed within the cave to fetch out the water from inside. Yet the danger remains. The oxygen count inside the cave decreases rapidly, spreading panic, with international media coverage all around.

The plan of action: Do all the boys survive?

In executing the plan, the team also loses one of their diving members. Yet, there is no other solution that is available with the rising pressure. If anyone of them dies, they will be the ones to blame. The parents are not given any details of this procedure, and all details are kept limited to the rescue team members only.

Thirteen Lives Movie Themes Explained:

Triumph of the human spirit:.

At the core of Ron Howard’s fictionalized account of this true story lies the inevitable triumph of the human spirit. In the face of such an impossible situation, it is the determination shown by the rescue team members, combined with the hard work and faith of the official staff and board members, that such an operation came to gratification.

The local community came together- their contribution finds importance in William Nicholson’s script, where they agree to flood their cultivated lands for the pumped-out water to be moved. There is no division between the people, they stand united together for one cause.

Reality versus faith:

The relevance of spiritual faith is immense in the Thai community, which binds them together. They pass on red strings to be tied on the wrists of the rescue team for bringing luck and protection- even though Stanton sides it away immediately. He dismisses any kind of superstitious belief and believes in acting rather than hoping. Either way, Howard simply keeps that dilemma open-ended for his audiences to situate.

Thirteen Lives Movie Ending Explained:

They put them in a wetsuit, holding the oxygen cylinders, sedating them, and bringing them back to the entrance – one by one. Shortly after the rescue mission is successful, Harris learns that his long-suffering father has passed away. The film ends on a note of relief and ecstasy, as one of the boys celebrates his birthday with the rest of the group, and Stanton & Volanthen return back to their respective homes.

Howard’s film could have easily fallen under the white savior stereotype, but it does not. Thirteen Lives moves with confidence and calm, aided by stunning visuals from renowned Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, to achieve an immersive look at courage and determination when a community comes together to achieve the impossible.

Also, Read – Prey (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained

Thirteen Lives (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , R0tten Tomatoes Thirteen Lives (2022) Movie Cast – Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman

Where to watch thirteen lives, trending right now.

Santanu believes that in real life, there are names that surprise us because they don't seem to suit the person at all. But for the love of Krzysztof Kieslowski, and The Double Life of Veronique~ names can evoke a submission to the unreal.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Thirteen Lives’ on Amazon Prime, Ron Howard’s Rock-Solid Docudrama About the Amazing Tham Luang Cave Rescue

Where to Stream:

• Thirteen Lives

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel’ on Netflix, A Short Doc About One Of Hollywood's Leading Composers

'the paper' at 30: a nostalgic journalism classic that still feels a little bit current, stream it or skip it: 'greatest geek year ever: 1982' on the cw, a docuseries about one of the best years for movie fans, 'arrested development' is staying on netflix after all.

Amazon Prime exclusive movie Thirteen Lives further proves that no real-life saga about the triumph of human spirit and ingenuity goes un-Hollywoodized. You likely already know the story: In 2018, 12 boys and their soccer coach ventured into a cave in Thailand’s Chiang Rai Province when sudden torrential rain brought flash floods, trapping them deep underground. A massive international rescue mission led by local officials and a handful of British cave-diving specialists went to work and, amazingly, after 18 pressure-filled days, saved all the boys and their coach. Director Ron Howard oversaw this big-budget BOATS ( Based On A True Story ) dramatization, and it may just be his best work in decades.

THIRTEEN LIVES : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: They should’ve been celebrating Phiraphat’s birthday by scarfing down SpongeBob cake. Instead, they found themselves trapped a mile-and-a-half underground. It was a perfect storm of terribly coincidental timing: After soccer practice but before the party, the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach hop on their bikes and gleefully park them at the mouth of the Tham Luang Cave. They nod respectfully at the Sleeping Princess shrine – named such because the clump of mountains resembles a prostrate woman – and chatter and laugh as they clamber down slopes and over rocks and through forests of stalactites. Then the rains came with biblical force. A few hours pass; parents fret. By midnight, the governor arrives at a bustling scene. Navy SEALs pull in. A British man with a detailed cave map turns up. It’s tense.

There are many details here – times, dates, locations, subtitles on the screen. Specific locations, like CHAMBER 3 and T-JUNCTION, followed by disorienting stats like 1,500 METERS. The SEALs go in, but rushing currents from persistent rain pushes them right back out, battered and bloody. Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn (Sahajak Boonthanakit) sighs, furrows his brow. Capt. Arnont’s (Theerapat Sajakul) stern face sharpens – those are his best men. The rain continues mercilessly. Workers wrestle with generators fueling pumps to flush some of the water out of the cave. Up on the mountain, local man Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai) organizes a crew to dam sinkholes and stave off the flooding. A small city of tents and trucks and workers and cooks and officials and locals and media has sprung up around the cave site.

DAY 5 arrives. In Coventry, England, Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) fields a call from his cave-diver buddy John Volanthen (Colin Farrell). Their incredibly specialized skills are needed. “I don’t even like kids,” Richard grumbles, but that doesn’t mean he won’t hop on a plane and try to help. They walk into the commotion. “They’re amateurs!” declares Capt. Arnont. Sure, one is a retired firefighter and the other’s an IT guy, but their hobby gives them the know-how that SEALs lack. They don their gear and scope out the cave but the rain. Won’t. Stop. DAY 10. Richard and John navigate the murk and dark and rocks and stalactites and narrow crevices and tricky turns and pop their heads above the water. “Smell that?”, John says. And there they are, 13 souls perched on a slanting rock. They’re skinny, tired, scared and hungry, but breathing. Their coach taught them to meditate. There’s hope, but not a how, net yet. There’s still eight days to go in this story and nearly two hours to go in this movie.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Thirteen Lives goes hand-in-hand with The Rescue , an extraordinarily suspenseful documentary chronicle of the ordeal – an extraordinarily suspenseful documentary chronicle of the ordeal that strangely didn’t get any Oscar consideration, I might add. (It’s also worth nothing that there’s another movie about these same events called The Cave , which came out in 2019.)

Performance Worth Watching: This is a strong, steady cast across the board, reflecting Howard’s worthy attempt to avoid turning this into a white-savior story. And so, Gov. Osatanakorn is the most subtly complex character here; those were his final days on the job, and he theorizes that his superiors pushed him to the forefront of an operation that was likely doomed to fail. A little internet reading on the guy suggests he was demoted for refusing to cooperate with corrupt officials, and although that’s not explicitly stated in the movie, Pansringarm carries significant dramatic weight here, his nonverbals showing a subtly frothy stew of worry and concern as Osatanakorn makes difficult decisions and deals with grieving parents, thirsty media throngs and intense political pressure.

Memorable Dialogue: Gruff and grumpy Richard stays focused: “They’re packages. We’re just the delivery guys.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: We know how this ends, and yet, we’re still invested, drawn in by invigorating, efficient filmmaking. Howard, a serial dealer in heavy schmaltz, maintains an even-keeled tone, dials back on the swelling-strings musical score and abstains from any crass emotional manipulation – which is exactly how one should approach this story, which is already uplifting and hopeful in stark black-and-white on a Wikipedia page. His docudrama methodology is assured, necessary and, dare I say it, pretty much perfect.

This is Howard’s best movie since Apollo 13 , and it’s an altogether different approach to similar material, a true story about gumption and intelligence in the face of adversity. In Thirteen Lives , he uses subtitles and graphics to convey exposition, and clearly establishes a variety of complex, interlocking set pieces – the cave mouth, inner chambers, the mountainside where workers dam water, farms where diverted water is destroying crops, etc. – so he can easily return to them, checking status and marking progress as divers and officials puzzle over a variety of predicaments and, eventually, finally, dive beneath the surface and suit up the boys and assure them and distract them and dose them with ketamine and lead them through a terrifying claustrophobic hell zone, every step along the way fraught with risk.

In other words, this saga already had earned its harrowing and suspenseful peaks and valleys, its emotional catharsis, and doesn’t need Howard to amplify it. So he doesn’t. It’s all in a day’s work for the heroes of this story, and the same goes for iots director. Howard tells a story about sheer, unrelenting competence with precisely that.

Will you stream or skip Ron Howard's rock-solid docudrama #ThirteenLivesMovie on @PrimeVideo ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) August 6, 2022

Our Call: STREAM IT. These days, old-school BOATS movies don’t get much better than this.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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Love Lies Bleeding review – Kristen Stewart keeps it real in deliciously lurid outlaw romance

Rose Glass’s follow-up to her acclaimed Saint Maud is a scorchingly sexy, darkly violent tale of a gym manager’s love affair with a bodybuilder

T his may seem an unexpected point to make about an actor who is arguably one of the coolest people on the planet, but the key to Kristen Stewart ’s mesmerising screen presence is her ordinariness. I don’t mean her looks, although as Lou, the manager of a bodybuilding gym in an insalubrious New Mexico backwater, Stewart’s natural magnetism is somewhat muted behind a whey powder pallor, an air of defeated weariness and hair that looks as if it’s been deep-fried rather than washed.

Rather, it’s the unstudied, naturalistic quality of her performances, which are seeded with little glitchy details and gestures – the way she rakes her fingers through her fringe; the moment when she nervously wipes her nose on the sleeve of her T-shirt. Small things, perhaps, but these seemingly unconscious tics humanise her characters. They are recognisable, relatable moments of social awkwardness that anchor her in (or at least near) the real world. It’s a quality that adds to all her performances, but which is particularly invaluable in British director Rose Glass’s second picture, the deliciously lurid and thrillingly degenerate outlaw romance Love Lies Bleeding . When the rest of the movie launches itself headlong into outlandish, almost cartoonish excess, Lou is plausibly three-dimensional and grounded. The rooted realism that underpins Stewart’s performance offers a necessary balance to some of the more untrammelled impulses in Glass’s follow-up to her impressive debut feature, Saint Maud (2020).

Another significant asset is newcomer Katy O’Brian, who shoulders what is probably the most demanding role in the film. Jackie is a bodybuilder from the kind of Godfearing midwestern farming country that views a “muscle chick” as an unnatural abomination. Blowing into Lou’s grim home town, more a collection of strip malls and casual violence than a functioning community, Jackie decides to hole up for a while and earn some money while she prepares for a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas.

She is a magnificent creature, glistening with confidence and physical assurance. It’s no wonder that Lou gawps across the gym, mouth agape, when she catches sight of Jackie, with her dark honey tan and a swarm of men preening around her. Eager to impress the new arrival later that evening, Lou scurries off into the office to fetch a box of steroid shots; she lays them in front of Jackie like an offering to a deity. The relationship that ignites between them is sweaty, grubby and scorching hot, but as the steroids do their work, warping and distorting Jackie’s body and her mind, a savage, self-destructive, simmering violence creeps into their romance.

And this is where Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone) and her husband, JJ (Dave Franco), come in. At first glance the pair seem to be woefully underwritten, schematic cardboard cutouts rather than layered characters. She’s the battered wife; he’s the short-fused bully who takes out his inadequacy on his spouse. Concern for Beth’s safety is why Lou can’t bring herself to leave this spiteful small town, despite numerous reasons to do so (first of these being her gun-toting estranged father, played with reptilian menace by Ed Harris). But I suspect that Glass intends Beth and JJ to be more than just the dramatic device that unleashes the film’s dark heart and violent impulses. They also serve as a kind of twisted mirror image of Lou and Jackie’s amour fou and a cautionary warning that any relationship this thoroughly soaked in blood can’t, ultimately, end well, however invincible the partnership and the passion that drives it might seem at the time.

And there’s a whole lot of blood, in a movie that embraces full-bore nastiness on every level. With the lip-smacking relish that she brings to the body-horror elements of the picture, and the sickening, sinewy crunches in the sound design, Glass ranks alongside the French director of Titane , Julia Ducournau , as one of the most exciting film-makers working in genre cinema. Both she and Ducournau share a heady, freewheeling independence in their approach and a healthy resistance to genre conventions. Both combine an appetite for gruesome excess with an impressive intellectual rigour.

Love Lies Bleeding won’t be for everyone. I’ve watched it twice, and it plays rather better to an up-for-it, late-night audience than it does at 11am on a Sunday morning. But this is a movie that will find its people. And once it does, cult status is more or less assured.

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'New Life' Review: A Tense Horror-Thriller With a Twist You Won't See Coming

John Rosman’s feature debut twists one of horror's most overused tropes to create a deeper emotional character journey.

The Big Picture

• New Life is a bold movie that offers a fresh take on overused tropes.
• The film explores themes of solidarity, adversity, and the power of hope in the face of chaos.
• New Life skillfully uses contemporary concerns, such as corporate greed and cyber surveillance, to enhance its background story and add depth to its thriller narrative.

This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival.

New Life is a genre-bending movie that defies simple definitions. At first, writer-director John Rosman 's feature debut presents itself as an engaging cat and mouse game played by Sonya Walger and Hayley Erin that doesn't seem like it will add something new to spy thriller conventions. As it turns out, though, that's part of New Life 's charm, with big second-act revelations pushing Rosman's feature straight into horror territory and changing the story’s stakes. While getting into the major twist would completely spoil the film, it's worth noting how the filmmaker takes one of the most overused tropes in horror and approaches it from a new angle. That alone would make the movie a standout, but New Life has much more to offer .

The film opens with an image of a young woman covered in blood , sneaking through the streets of suburbia while constantly looking over her shoulder. The woman, Jessica (Erin), is being chased by people with guns, all dressed in suits. Her only chance to escape is to go North and do whatever she can to remain hidden until crossing the Canadian border and starting a new life for herself. While Jessica is on the run, Elsa (Walger) is ordered to take over the hunt for her. Once a prominent field agent, Elsa has been recently diagnosed with ALS, and her body is slowly refusing to respond to her will. She hides her condition from her colleagues and hopes that bringing Jessica in might help prove she can still do her job.

New Life (2023)

In a dramatic series, a recently widowed woman struggles to rebuild her life in a small coastal town where she finds new beginnings and complex relationships. As she connects with the local community, she discovers that healing comes in many forms and sometimes unexpected places.

In Jessica’s segment of the story, New Life tells a tale of solidarity, as she is lucky to cross paths with people who offer help without expecting any explanations about her past. She’s then free to build something new after evading whoever's chasing her. Elsa’s story echoes that of Jessica, as the agent is forced to upend her life due to the limitations of ALS. So, on one level, Rosman’s movie is about the chaotic elements of life where everyone must choose how to deal with adversity either by embracing hope or giving in to despair. That theme is echoed throughout both main characters' storylines, as Jessica and Elsa fight to reclaim the life that has been taken from them , either by other people or by unfair diseases.

'New Life' Boasts a Pair of Excellent Performances

As a character-driven story, New Life can only work thanks to Eron's and Walger's commitment to their respective roles . Even as Jessica and Elsa are on opposite sides, they both have to deal with secrets and mistrust, which gets reflected in how they keep their pain concealed and hold everybody at arm's length. Eron and Walger help give both women emotional layers by using body language to convey the complex feelings they cannot talk about openly as we observe their reactions to curveballs that are thrown their way as the plot unfolds. Walger, in particular, helps give the ALS storyline more weight by masterfully capturing the frustration and fear that comes with the diagnosis while maintaining the facade of gritty antagonist that her hunter position demands. This offers audiences an intriguing drama, which improves when New Life plays with genre conventions to subvert expectations.

At first, New Life doesn’t explain why Jessica is running away , nor does it reveal who Elsa’s contractors are. All we know is that two women who never crossed paths before have their lives uprooted by the chase. This narrative framing allows audiences to explore each character’s internal struggle. In addition, the movie also makes a statement about the dangers of technology.

As Jessica travels the country, she must do so while avoiding electronics. Meanwhile, Elsa’s army of technicians scour the web for clues of her prey’s whereabouts. With dynamic editing that adds a welcome and fast-paced energy to Rosman's compelling direction, New Life uses images of surveillance cameras, official government transcripts, and social media to showcase the alarming web of cyber surveillance we are all trapped in. As much as Jessica wants to vanish, there are just too many digital footprints people can follow to learn more about her . There’s a never-ending flow of information surrounding human lives, making it almost impossible to believe privacy still exists when street cameras can track people’s every move without alerting them.

'New Life' Takes a Turn That Brings Everything Together

That scary thought elevates the classic woman-on-the-run film, painting a grim picture of the power wealthy companies can have over people’s lives. Once New Life reveals why Jessica is on the run, that message immediately underscores how corporate greed often gets in the way of individual safety and privacy, regardless of the dangers it presents to us. So, even though these themes are not the movie's main focus, Rosman's writing skillfully uses contemporary concerns to polish up New Life 's background story .

It would be a disservice to the film to comment on its genre-bending twist. Still, it’s important to emphasize how the horror elements introduced in the second act add to the tense atmosphere of the thriller, tying Jessica’s and Elsa’s personal journeys closer than either could have anticipated. Rosman’s script is also clever enough to avoid tonal dissonances by smoothly adding these new components without losing track of the main story, at least until the end. The third act of New Life could have been cleaner, as some of the plot points that come with the horror portion of the movie get in the way of the thoughtful exploration of ALS that the film does through Elsa. Even so, despite using genre conventions both for its thriller and the mysterious horror story layers, New Life feels fresh and innovative , presenting a mix that works so well that it’s a wonder no one ever tried to do something similar before.

New Life is a bold, genre-bending feature debut with excellent performances and great writing.

• The film provides a new take on a familiar story, upending our expectations in the best way.
• Sonya Walger and Hayley Erin each give great performances, providing emotional layers through every aspect of their body language.
• The twist brings everything into emotionally resonant focus, showing how our two characters were more similar than they were different.
• The third act could have been cleaner as certain horror developments don't always connect with the more thoughtful elements of the film.

New Life is now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

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Fascinating 'Full Court Press' captures off-court lives of Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, Kiki Rice

Abc, espn+ series documents the joys, pressures of three stars during historic era for women’s college basketball..

Caitlin Clark, Kiki Rice and Kamilla Cardoso arrive at Monday’s world premiere of “Full Court Press” in Indianapolis.

Darron Cummings/AP

We know Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Kiki Rice can ball, and the four-part ESPN documentary “Full Court Press” does a stellar job of showcasing their respective talents — but my favorite parts of this timely and fascinating and inspirational series are the insider, behind-the-scenes moments, which range from silly to insightful to uplifting to heartwarming. Just a small sampling:

• As Iowa’s generational and transcendent superstar Caitlin Clark’s life becomes ever more surreal (“Tom Brady just followed me,” she casually notes to boyfriend Connor McCaffery while scrolling through her phone), Clark and her teammates and coaches gather at the St. Burch Tavern in Iowa City for a holiday party. Wearing a necklace of old-fashioned Christmas tree bulbs, Caitlin jokes about the number of candles that are gifted in the Secret Santa exchange — before getting a candle, and a pair of heated gloves, as a present. It’s that increasingly rare moment when Caitlin can just be a happy college kid, hanging around and joking with her friends. (Albeit with cameras lurking.)
• UCLA sophomore guard Kiki Rice is a singular talent with a rich family legacy of high achievers. Her father John played basketball for Yale, her mother Andrea was a tennis player at Yale, her cousin Allan Houston was a two-time NBA All-Star and her aunt, Susan Rice, is a diplomat who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. Rice is a brilliant player, but she has a relatively reserved personality and has moments of wavering confidence. Meeting regularly with sports psychologist Nicole Davis, Kiki works on the mental side of her game, and overcoming her “fear of results.” It’s a reminder of the enormous pressures felt by these young stars in a game that has exploded over the last few years.
• South Carolina superstar center (and now Chicago Sky rookie ) Kamilla Cardoso grew up in Montes Claros, Brazil, and moved to the United States when she was 15 to pursue her basketball dreams, leaving behind her hardworking mother, Janete Soares, and her fiercely loyal sister, Jessica Cardosa Silva. Cardoso’s family had never seen her play in the United States — until they visit her in advance of South Carolina Senior Night. “I can’t even believe it,” says Kamilla’s mother upon arriving in the United States. “I can’t even believe I’m in America.” If you don’t have a lump in your throat when Cardoso’s mother and sister surprise her after a practice, you might be dead.

Directed with great skill and fly-on-the-wall style by Kristen Lappas, featuring extended interviews with Clark, Rice and Cardoso, as well as their coaches, family members and a deep roster of ESPN talent including basketball-great-turned-analyst Rebecca Lobo, Holly Rowe and Elle Duncan, “Full Court Press” follows in the tradition of insider sports docs such as HBO’s “Hard Knocks” and Netflix series such as “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” “Full Swing” and “Quarterback.” The key to these series is for the filmmakers to reach a level of comfort and trust with their subjects; of course they’re going to be aware of the ubiquitous presence of the cameras and microphones, but the more time you spend with them, the more they let down their guard and give us access to their lives, on and off the court.

Caitlin Clark signs posters in a moment from “Full Court Press.”

Recognizing that Women’s College Basketball was on the precipice of an historic year, the ESPN documentarians have their cameras in place from the outset of the 2023-24 season, starting with the “Crossover at Kinnick” exhibition game between Iowa and DePaul, with a women’s basketball record-setting 55,646 in attendance at Iowa’s football stadium, Clark sinking jumpers through the outdoor winds.

We follow Clark, Rice and Cardoso as they work the weight room and practice sessions and hit the floor for early season games; it’s an added bonus to see how coaches Lisa Bluder, Cori Close and Dawn Staley conduct practices, motivate their players and make game-time adjustments. There’s also a treasure trove of home video footage, e.g., when little “Caty” Clark insists on riding her pink bicycle without training wheels because her older brother had ridden his bike sans wheels. The competitor was there practically from birth.

Kamilla Cardoso meets fans in a “Full Court Press” segment.

“Full Court Press” shows us the benefits of college stardom — as when Rice gets NIL deals with the Jordan brand and Beats headphones, and Clark does a State Farm ad with Jimmy Butler and poses for pics in front an enormous Times Square electronic billboard of her likeness — as well as the pressures. Cardoso is filled with remorse when she’s suspended for the first game of the NCAA tournament for a fighting penalty in the SEC Championship Game, and she talks about how her teammates are family to her, while Clark opens up about “always having to be on,” even when she’s having a bad day, because when “somebody comes up, this is their 10-second interaction with you” and they’ll be telling that story for the rest of their lives.

Mostly, though, “Full Court Press” is an invaluable chronicle of a special time for women’s basketball, and three amazing women who are pivotal in shaping its future.

• Caitlin Clark’s impact on WNBA is already apparent

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Dead Don't Hurt

Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War. Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War. Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War.

• Viggo Mortensen
• Vicky Krieps
• Solly McLeod
• 3 User reviews
• 12 Critic reviews
• 67 Metascore

• Vivienne Le Coudy

• Holger Olsen

• Weston Jeffries

• Alfred Jeffries

• Alan Kendall

• Rudolph Schiller

• Billy Crossley

• Claudio Garcia

• Fergus McGillicuddy
• Railroad Magnate

• Fishmonger Stevens

• Reverend Simpson

• Little Vincent

• Martha Gilkyson

• Judge Blagden
• Little Vivienne Le Coudy
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The knight that appears in young Vivienne's visions carries a familiar sword: Anduril, Aragorn's sword from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) , which was gifted to Viggo Mortensen by Peter Jackson at the end of filming.
• Connections Referenced in CTV News at Six Toronto: Episode dated 8 September 2023 (2023)

User reviews 3

• Blue-Grotto
• Dec 3, 2023
• How long is The Dead Don't Hurt? Powered by Alexa
• May 31, 2024 (United States)
• Hasta el fin del mundo
• Durango, Mexico
• Talipot Studio
• Recorded Picture Company (RPC)
• Perceval Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 9 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Review: The Franchise Essentially Reboots with a Tale of Survival Set — At Last — in the Ape-Ruled Future

With Owen Teague as a young ape trapped in a cult kingdom, it may be the first film in the series to connect with the spirit of 'Planet of the Apes.'

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ” opens with Caesar lying in state, surrounding by a horde of mourning chimps, as his dead body is covered in flowers and ritually set on fire. The movie then cuts to the jungle, where a title informs us that it’s “many generations later.” In other words, the tale we’ve been watching in the last three “Apes” films — “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011), “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014), and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017) — is now ancient franchise history. I’m in the minority of viewers who would greet that news by saying, “Thank God.”

Popular on Variety

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is, in effect, a reboot of its own franchise. I’m not sure that the film is going to be any more successful than the previous three installments (or even as successful). It’s essentially a two-and-a-half-hour chimp-in-the-wilderness adventure movie, directed by Wes Ball (the “Maze Runner” films) in the deliberately paced “classical” style of an episodic Hollywood saga from 50 years ago. It doesn’t have a cast of big-name stars. Yet the actors are abetted by the astonishingly organic facial expressions made possible by cutting-edge motion capture, and though the film is too long, I was more than gratified to sink into its relatively old-fashioned dramatic restraint.

Cut loose from his village, Noa meets a wise old orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), with impish small eyes and a funny way of pursing his lips; he’s a relic who still believes in the teachings of Caesar. Noa also meets a human wild child (Freya Allan) who’s less innocent than she looks. As Noa, the gifted actor Owen Teague makes his presence felt. He displays not just cleverness and nobility but raw fear, an exciting quality to see in a hero.

The three characters team up, but Noa is eventually dragged to the ape kingdom, presided over by a fearsome cult leader named Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), who has stolen the authority — but not the morality — of his namesake. Proximus takes a special interest in Noa, who is essentially a prison-camp inmate, reunited with his mother and friends, who must defeat the empire from within. Here and there, we’re shown signs of the human civilization that’s been destroyed: the carcasses of buildings, escalators, and elevated train tracks, overgrown with shrubbery. Yet human technology is still the holy grail. The ape kingdom is built around a silo, with a closed vault of a door, that contains many wonders within (like weapons). That vault is Pandora’s Box, and Proximus wants to unlock it so desperately that he’ll sacrifice a handful of his apes every day to electroshock the door open.

Kevin Durand’s performance as Proximus, the leering bonobo monarch, is a piece of insinuating theater — he’s a leader who’s made the mistake of thinking everything is about him. And the rest of the cast makes its mark, from Sarah Wiseman as Noa’s heartstrong mother to Peter Macon as the whimsical seen-it-all Raka to William H. Macy as a scavenger who has carved out a place for himself in the ape kingdom like Dennis Hopper’s photographer in “Apocalypse Now.” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” invites us to embrace the drama of apes fighting apes. By the end, though, in what is in effect a teaser for the next sequel, it looks as if the franchise’s blowhard version of the human race will be back after all. That could be enough to make you want to escape from the planet of the apes.

Reviewed at AMC 34th St., New York, May 7, 2024. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 145 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Studios release of a Jason T. Reed Productions, Oddball Entertainment production. Producers: Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed. Executive producers: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping.
• Crew: Director: Wes Ball. Screenplay: Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Patrick Aison. Camera: Gyula Pados. Editor: Dan Zimmerman. Music: John Paesano.
• With: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Travis Jeffery, Lydia Peckham, Neil Sandilands.

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