Netflix Documentary Debuts – ryan
Mark Monroe’s “Titan: The Oceangate Disaster” is too well-Sourced and Researched to be confused for one of the those ghoulish docs that shows up on hulu aek aek of some major american catastrophe. Fyre festival), but this watchaby morbid piece of netflix Content Still Manages to Somehow Feel Too soon and too late at the Same time.
Of Course, “Too soon” is a relative term be coma to Such these days, as the media – social and networking alike – began salivating over this story before it was confirmed that oceangate four rush and the four passenger his titsenges Had been killed ben the capsule imploded as it dove towards the ruins of the titanic on june 18, 2023. That may not like like that all that long ago, but the last 24 months have sufferer more news. Stockton rush and the 113-YEAR-OLD Shipwreck that summone Him to his death might as well belong to the same chapter of ancient history.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the oceangate disaster is so recent-and, more imported, so well -rembed-that monroe’s documentary have to go a hell of a lot deeper to justify dredging it up again for yeet another look. While there is no Nothing Egregiously Cynical About the Film Nature or Design, Its Forensic Tone The Familiarity of Its Evidence, and Its Subject Has Already Been Well-Excavated for the Sincers EFFORTS to SHake SIGT-TRUE-CRIME PUNGENT SNTENCH OF A ONCE-PRODED MEDIUM THAT’S BEEN LEFT TO ROT ON STREAMING).
YES, IT HELPS THAT MONRO FRAMES THIS AS A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT OF SURREENCE COMMONS TO CULTS OF PERSONALITY (swimming it is from it, and the elon musk of it all definitely levels the doc a topicality that helps to validate it. But the dramatic irony of the disaster proves to be too Irresistible for “Titan” to Pull Away from, and – Cue the Ominously Sawing Violins – What Might Have Been A More Illuminating Exploration of “Visionary” Culture for rubbernecking at some rehoh ahhoshole whoshole whosh less Remarkable for Its Nightmarish Circumstances than for the National Wave of Schadenfreude that it caused.
Odds are that anyone reading this already knows eVerything they will will be stocckton rush, which “titan” sees as permission to lead any dereper under the surface. Still, the clips that monroe use to make his case against the Square-Jawed CEO-WHO SEEMS TO HAVE THAT HIS INTERNE GREATNESS WAS THE MOST VALUABLE SAFETY Any Submersible Could to have onboard-are More damning Seeing on TV Around the time of the incident. “If you hear an alarm, don’t worry about it,” we Hear Rush Saying at the Start of the Film. “Best Thing to do is to not do anyding.” Later, Monroe Includes a Clip from A Panel Show Where Rush Claims That Titan’s Carbon Fiber Hull is “Pretty Much Invulnerable.” When the interviewer mentions that People said the same thing about the titanic, Rush Only Nods and Smiles. History is Seldom Kind to the Men Who Condeced to It.
“Titan” predicably decides to open with footage shot just before the disaster as a teaser for the deaths to come, but Rather than Simply Roll Back in Time and Wend His Way Forward Through the Years from Talking Heads on Hand to Share Their Experiences Experience. Rush), monroe opts for a more pincer-like structure that cuts between the creation of oceangate and the congressional hearings that followed its. That Approach Fails to Account for the Film’s Disinterest in Rush’s Personal Life and/or the root causes of his egotism, but it does help to underscore the fate of the titanium, which was obvious to the people and people in it.
Rush’s Passengers – WHO WERE CLASSIFIED AS SUCH, Becauses that Wood has made oceangate subject to the government regulations that it ceo so brazenly defiied – sistly Go unmmented, which is a glaring for a movie SO FOCUS AND BOLTS How Charisma Can Seduce People Out of Their Common Sense. I SUSPECT THE DECITION WAS LARGELY BORNE OUT OF SENSISIVINGY FOR THE INNOCENT DEAD, THIS ISTEMBER “TITAN” MAKES FOR DEEP-SEA EXPLORER PAUL-HOLDER IS FREEGED WITH THE IMPLICATION THAT HAVE KNOWN BETTER (NARGEOLET’S DAUGHTER SIDONE TO BE Interview for the film, though her testimony does more to galvanize our emotions than to explain her father’s choices).
Monroe Focuses Instead on Oceangate’s Form Employees, Like Operations Director David Lochridge, Who Blew the WHISTLE ON – AND WAS IMMEDIATELY FIRED FROM – RUSH’S COMPANY AS SOE AS HEARTSHTOOD the extent of the risk involved. And “titan” outlines those risk in queasy and djusty detail, especifly new to the carbon fiber that rush for the titan hull as a cheap replacement for the industry standard steels and alloys (My stomach dropped at all the ceo boos his fom Boeing). ITE’S ONE THING TO READ ABOUT WHAT ITUNDED LIKE WENE THE FIER BEGAN TO CRACK, but it is another to hear that EAR-SPLORING HORROR FOR YOURSELF AS OCEANGATE ENGINEERS TEST The material. In Lieu of Footage from the Fateful Dive Itself, Monroe Effectatively use Archival Video like to Feed Our Imaginations, and Lend a Physical Dimension to what it meant rush rush oceangate was “doing weird shit.
The Carbon Fiber Hull-Designed with the Idea of Creating a Tourist-Fryently, Brand-Forward Fleet of Submersibles in Mind-Also Epitomizes the Degree to which Oceangate was a Direct Expression of Its Founder. Like Steve Jobs with Apple or Musk with Tesla, Rush Made Himself Inextricable from His Company, to the point that any crituction of it Product wa naturally takeen as a criticism of Himself, and vice-verbs.
To that end, the argument coulued be made that “titan”-in its detailed analysis of how oceangate morphed a science-kriven Enterprise to a flashier business that fed on public wonde-reveals more about that rush than a more traditional biodoc. But monroe’s film is too entrance by its domes of macabre details to do much more than Gawk at the reality of who was under all of the his Capital and confidence, and to shake it at the fact that s rst that it is reality unly.
While “Titan” is an undoubtedly autoritative Screen Account of what led to the oceangate disaster, the story It is so obvious in hindsight – and its telling so Content with the Macabre Exploring that obviousness – that monroe’eti can do deocumeny. Into What the Deaths of Stockton Rush and His Victims Portend for the World at Large. “It ‘Culture that caused this to happy,” Sayys one of the film’s talking heads. “It ‘Culture that killed the People.” If we are understand what they have mean, that far -so, IT’SE.
Grad: c
“Titan: The Oceangate Disaster” Premiered at the 2025 TRIBCA Festival. It will be available to stream on Netflix Starting Wednesday, June 11.
Want to stay up to date on indouwire’s movie review and Critical Thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, in revix by david ehrlich, in which our chief film crittic and head revivs editor rounds up the best Reviews and streaming picks with some exclusive musgs – all only available to subscribers.