THB #194: 2 Reviews (1 More To Come)

Thirteen Lives (exclusive theaters & Amazon Prime) - I can never know what seeing Thirteen Lives would have been like without having first seen the brilliant documentary, The Rescue (now on Disney+). But for me, the Ron Howard film started a giant step behind.

I’m sure a feature could have been made of this now often-told story of the 12 kids and their coach stuck deep in a cave system in Thailand’s Tham Luang in 2018. But it probably would have to be a high-art take on the material to be great. Trying to make a conventional movie is an almost impossible task.

Why?

This is a story of brave, passionate people traveling underwater in tight spaces for about 2.5 miles from where the boys in the cave were trapped and safety. Ultimately, all of the drama is underwater and the emotional question is whether they will survive, coming up for air.

The documentary has the advantage of the divers being able to speak to their experiences and emotions, rather than Howard and screenwriter William Nichol…