NYAD (2023)
This is a 2024 Oscar-nominated movie; it was absolutely beautiful and touching, and I learned a lot from this movie. Diana Nyad was a terrific swimmer. At 28, she went on a mission to break the world’s record of “the world’s longest swimmer” across the ocean from Cuba to Florida, but she failed. She decided to revisit the mission this time at age 60 and she explained that what she lacked earlier was the mind, and she wasn’t ready to allow anyone to impose a limitation on her because of her age. Diana decided to practice daily; she spent over 8 hours in the pool just to prepare for the great mission. She believed that having her best friend by her side as the coach would make the journey easier. You will need to watch this movie to see how many times she had to keep trying and if she eventually broke the record. Here were some of her striking words at the end; “One, never ever give up, Two- You are never too old to chase your dreams, three – you need a very good team to succeed.” Diana never gave up and she broke all records against all odds, all for trying. The movie was based on a true-life incident. The 2-hour sports/Thriller movie was directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, it featured actors like Jodie Foster, Annette Bening, Rhys Ifans, Luke Cosgrove, Anna Harriette Pittman, Eric T. Miller, Karly Rothenberg and many more.
BADLAND HUNTERS (2024)
It took me a while before I could wrap my head around watching this movie, as I suspected I struggled with it, but lucky for me, I made it to the very end. So according to the story, there was a very deadly earthquake that left the land of Seoul desolate and disserted, turning the country into a lawless bad land where people had to do anything to survive. During the crisis, there was a very corrupt doctor who was desperate to save his daughter. To do this, he lured young girls and boys to his camp, where he had good food and water. He made their parents sign them up to be trained; little did they know that they were being used for the experiment to extend the life of his daughter. Unfortunately, he took the wrong girl in, as she had a fearless huntsman come to fight for her and rescue her from the evil doctor. Do check the movie out to see how they had to destroy the entire camp to save the girl and other young kids, alongside their family members. The 1h 48m Korean, action movie was directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, it featured actors like Don Lee, Lee Hee-jun, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui, An Ji-hye, Park Ji-hun, Jang Young-nam and many more.
THE AFTER (2023)
This was a 2024 Oscar-nominated short film, a very simple short story that will leave you thinking and wondering how unfair life could be at times. Dayo was a very hard-working and caring father. On that faithful day, he decided to call off work just to attend his daughter’s school play with her mom, only for the very worst to occur that completely chartered his life and turned him into a shadow of himself. For years, he would go back to the same scene, hoping he could reverse things, but to no avail, he became a rideshare driver, to help him reduce the intimacy of interactions with people. Check out this short movie to see how one of the rides forced him to confront his long-suppressed fears. The 18-minute short film was directed by Misan Harriman and featured actors like David Oyelowo, Jessica Plummer, Izuka Hoyle, Dominique Tripper, Nikesh Patel, etc.
