Latest news with #AlexParkinson
The Guardian
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Last Breath review – unbearably tense deep-sea drama
A deep-sea diver is stranded on the sea bed with just 10 minutes of oxygen and little hope of a happy outcome. Defying the odds, his colleagues stage a daring rescue attempt. Director Alex Parkinson, who co-directed a 2019 documentary about the incredible true story on which this film is based, makes an efficient fist of this breathless (literally) survival movie. Finn Cole plays rookie North Sea diver Chris Lemons, who, through no fault of his own, finds himself trapped underwater. Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu are businesslike as the veteran divers on his team. The main asset, though, is the camerawork, both above and below water, which plunges us into this unbearably tense thriller. In UK and Irish cinemas
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Last Breath Review: Seems Like a Good Idea for a Movie But Isn't
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Last Breath seems like a good idea for a movie because of how compelling and miraculous its story is, but the actual result is less dramatically interesting than what it must have been like to live through the events. Directed by Alex Parkinson, Last Breath tells the true story of a group of deep-sea divers who journey to the seabed to maintain a gas pipeline. However, a tragic accident leaves one of the divers stuck and the umbilical that provides him oxygen is severed, leaving him alone, stranded, and running out of oxygen. Together the remaining divers and the crew aboard their ship must rescue their colleague. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole play the divers. That subject seems compelling, and while it's happening, it's natural to think that it would make a great movie. In fact, Last Breath (2025) is the dramatized remake of Last Breath (2019), a critically acclaimed documentary that uses footage from the real events. However, because so much of the drama in Last Breath is in the waiting and so much of the rescue attempt involves some jargon that is somewhat dense, the actual film is less compelling. Last Breath reminded me a lot of 127 Hours (2010), a Danny Boyle-directed story of James Franco's character who gets his hand stuck underneath a rock. Boyle is able to make the waiting – the time between the accident and the story's harrowing solution – compelling and interesting with his frenetic camerawork and a few flashbacks. Similarly, Parkinson uses a few flashbacks, but he's not near as good a director as Danny Boyle. So most of the movie's drama is in a ticking clock or a story rife with technical jargon that isn't that dramatic without the audience being as familiar with the mechanics as the characters are. For example, in order to accomplish the rescue, they have to rewire a navigation system. The character's solution to the problem is probably incredibly impressive and clever, but without the same framework or understanding of the system, it's hard to have a strong emotional reaction to what's on the screen. While Last Breath doesn't work as a suspense film, that doesn't mean that there aren't some good, suspenseful sequences particularly toward the end and at the very beginning when the character gets lost. The performances are all adequate; there isn't much exploration of character depth or individualized personalities beyond a few broad strokes. Ultimately, Last Breath is an acceptable thriller that would have been better served as either a short film or as the documentary. It may have seemed like a compelling movie at the time, but its drama doesn't translate particularly well. Eyewitness News. Everywhere you are. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
"Secret" movie screenings offer sneak previews of new releasees for $5
Want to beat the crowds to the hottest new movies? You can for $5 — if you're willing to gamble. State of play: At "Secret Cinema" screenings, Larry H. Miller Megaplex theaters are showing films on select Mondays before their general release dates. Cinemark also hosts a "Secret Movie Series." The catch: The theater doesn't disclose the movie until the opening credits begin to roll. The only clue is the movie's rating (R, PG-13, etc.) You simply buy your ticket, show up, and hope for the best. Ross' thought bubble: I checked out Cinemark's mystery movie on Monday — a fun experience, but you have to have an open mind. The feature was "Novocaine" which is set to hit theaters March 14. There is a good chance you'll see a movie that you've already seen the trailers for but don't be a sleuth and try to figure it out beforehand. Just show up and enjoy the surprise. Zoom in: February's Megaplex audiences caught a sneak peak of Alex Parkinson's survival thriller " Last Breath." How it works: Check the "Coming Soon" section on the Megaplex app for future Secret Cinemas, or head to Cinemark's website. Cinemark's next showing is listed for April 7. Read more: This secret-location comedy show is popping up around Salt Lake
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Thriller That's Most Fun When It's Boring
The biggest compliment I can give Last Breath, a gripping, workmanlike new movie about an undersea rescue, is that I would happily watch a version of it where absolutely nothing goes wrong. The director Alex Parkinson's debut dramatic film is based on his 2019 documentary of the same name; both recount an incident in the world of 'saturation diving,' in which a technician was stranded 300 feet under the North Sea. It's the kind of intense, rare, do-or-die emergency that's worthy of a hefty Hollywood feature. But I was mesmerized enough just watching these people do their very odd, high-stakes job. The heroes of both Parkinson's original telling and the feature's re-creation are Chris Lemons (played by Finn Cole), Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), and David Yuasa (Simu Liu): three deep-sea repairmen whose task is so unthinkably risky and weird, it's hard to imagine humans actually being able to carry it out. And yet, Parkinson carefully takes viewers through the chipper aplomb with which these men approach their profession. We see them as they're getting on a large boat in the North Sea, living in a pressurized habitat where they adjust to a helium-rich atmosphere, then hopping into a diving bell to go to the ocean floor and work on the pipes and systems lining it—these mysterious but vital structures that quietly underpin modern life. The trio's occupation feels akin to the experience of traveling to space. They isolate themselves from their families for months on end, relocating to the most hostile environments imaginable. I'll admit that I've spent approximately zero minutes thinking about the giant gas lines and other such superstructures on the ocean floor until now, but once I understood what Last Breath was about, I was locked in. Parkinson's background as a documentarian serves the movie well; he lays out every aspect of this strange operation for the audience without making his story feel like a Wikipedia entry. [Read: How the diving bell opened the ocean's depth] Last Breath's story unfurls in ways that go beyond the simply factual—in large part because of its charming cast. I'm not too familiar with Cole (who is best known for his work on the TV show Peaky Blinders), but he's appropriately fresh-faced and lively as Lemons, the diving team's newest member. He's eager to learn the ropes from Harrelson's grizzled vet, Allcock; the latter actor can play this kind of wisecracking mentor in his sleep, but he's a reliably funny dispenser of exposition. As Yuasa, Liu also plays an archetype —the no-nonsense professional—but he keeps the character on the right side of curtness, underlining the extreme professionalism required in such a scary job. I have no idea how Parkinson captured Last Breath's underwater footage, which illustrates how dark, treacherous, and almost instantly frightening the deep sea is. This setting is not a place of wonder filled with peculiar flora and fauna, but a gaping, uninviting void. It's so inhospitable that the presence of big pipes and industrial manifolds comes across as traces left behind by ancient aliens. When Lemons produced a wrench to start tightening some screws, I almost laughed: How could a pipe in such a surreal location be in need of such mundane maintenance? Of course, things do go wrong, which viewers familiar with the true story know well. A computer error on the ship that the divers are tethered to causes it to drift off course. In the ensuing chaos, Lemons's guideline (which gives him oxygen, power, and a chain to civilization) snaps, stranding him at the bottom of the ocean; he's left with just a few minutes of life support. What happens next as his colleagues and other members of the crew try to save him is unimaginable and nerve-racking. But it's also deeply, mesmerizingly process-oriented. It would have been easy to inflate Last Breath's action stakes to make them fun and absurd, but Parkinson's nonfiction instincts as a filmmaker won't really allow for that. I'm thankful for the meticulous realism that follows instead. Entire sequences are devoted to tasks as humdrum as rebooting a ship's computer (which involves untangling a lot of wires) and shepherding a little robotic sub to try retrieving Lemons, which resembles a very tense version of a fairground claw game. Harrelson and Liu have plenty of movie-star appeal, but the director tends to keep them in stasis; they're frequently parked in neutral as they figure out the best way back to their friend. These scenes shouldn't be so riveting, but they are—the film makes an effort to invest the audience in the story's human concerns as much as in its more procedural elements. Last Breath is a midsize version of a large-scale thriller, one that isn't afraid to seem boring, and I mean that as a major compliment. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Thriller That's Most Fun When It's Boring
The biggest compliment I can give Last Breath, a gripping, workmanlike new movie about an undersea rescue, is that I would happily watch a version of it where absolutely nothing goes wrong. The director Alex Parkinson's debut dramatic film is based on his 2019 documentary of the same name; both recount an incident in the world of 'saturation diving,' in which a technician was stranded 300 feet under the North Sea. It's the kind of intense, rare, do-or-die emergency that's worthy of a hefty Hollywood feature. But I was mesmerized enough just watching these people do their very odd, high-stakes job. The heroes of both Parkinson's original telling and the feature's re-creation are Chris Lemons (played by Finn Cole), Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), and David Yuasa (Simu Liu): three deep-sea repairmen whose task is so unthinkably risky and weird, it's hard to imagine humans actually being able to carry it out. And yet, Parkinson carefully takes viewers through the chipper aplomb with which these men approach their profession. We see them as they're getting on a large boat in the North Sea, living in a pressurized habitat where they adjust to a helium-rich atmosphere, then hopping into a diving bell to go to the ocean floor and work on the pipes and systems lining it—these mysterious but vital structures that quietly underpin modern life. The trio's occupation feels akin to the experience of traveling to space. They isolate themselves from their families for months on end, relocating to the most hostile environments imaginable. I'll admit that I've spent approximately zero minutes thinking about the giant gas lines and other such superstructures on the ocean floor until now, but once I understood what Last Breath was about, I was locked in. Parkinson's background as a documentarian serves the movie well; he lays out every aspect of this strange operation for the audience without making his story feel like a Wikipedia entry. Last Breath 's story unfurls in ways that go beyond the simply factual—in large part because of its charming cast. I'm not too familiar with Cole (who is best known for his work on the TV show Peaky Blinders), but he's appropriately fresh-faced and lively as Lemons, the diving team's newest member. He's eager to learn the ropes from Harrelson's grizzled vet, Allcock; the latter actor can play this kind of wisecracking mentor in his sleep, but he's a reliably funny dispenser of exposition. As Yuasa, Liu also plays an archetype —the no-nonsense professional—but he keeps the character on the right side of curtness, underlining the extreme professionalism required in such a scary job. I have no idea how Parkinson captured Last Breath 's underwater footage, which illustrates how dark, treacherous, and almost instantly frightening the deep sea is. This setting is not a place of wonder filled with peculiar flora and fauna, but a gaping, uninviting void. It's so inhospitable that the presence of big pipes and industrial manifolds comes across as traces left behind by ancient aliens. When Lemons produced a wrench to start tightening some screws, I almost laughed: How could a pipe in such a surreal location be in need of such mundane maintenance? Of course, things do go wrong, which viewers familiar with the true story know well. A computer error on the ship that the divers are tethered to causes it to drift off course. In the ensuing chaos, Lemons's guideline (which gives him oxygen, power, and a chain to civilization) snaps, stranding him at the bottom of the ocean; he's left with just a few minutes of life support. What happens next as his colleagues and other members of the crew try to save him is unimaginable and nerve-racking. But it's also deeply, mesmerizingly process-oriented. It would have been easy to inflate Last Breath 's action stakes to make them fun and absurd, but Parkinson's nonfiction instincts as a filmmaker won't really allow for that. I'm thankful for the meticulous realism that follows instead. Entire sequences are devoted to tasks as humdrum as rebooting a ship's computer (which involves untangling a lot of wires) and shepherding a little robotic sub to try retrieving Lemons, which resembles a very tense version of a fairground claw game. Harrelson and Liu have plenty of movie-star appeal, but the director tends to keep them in stasis; they're frequently parked in neutral as they figure out the best way back to their friend. These scenes shouldn't be so riveting, but they are—the film makes an effort to invest the audience in the story's human concerns as much as in its more procedural elements. Last Breath is a midsize version of a large-scale thriller, one that isn't afraid to seem boring, and I mean that as a major compliment.
