The Deepest Breath

Director: Laura McGann
Year Released: 2023
Rating: 2.0

In the incredibly dangerous "extreme sport" of freediving - where the athlete, without using any sort of oxygen tank, holds his or her breath to plunge deep into the ocean - Italian Alessia Zecchini, inspired by her hero Natalia Molchanova, is determined to set all the World Records, and is helped by Irish safety diver Stephen Keenan, with whom she forms a tight bond.  The underwater footage is both beautiful and terrifying, but there's something bordering on the exploitative with this documentary, as it continuously alludes to the fact that one of its subjects has a fatal accident and then waits for the end for the "big reveal" (although you can glean from the interviews who it is).  It's also hard to root for an activity that's so perilous a participant's dive can be negated if they need to be revived upon surfacing and they're "rewarded" with a white card for not passing out.  Say what you will about Alex Honnold's borderline suicidal free solo climbs ... but at least he doesn't risk becoming dinner for fish.