Month: February 2019

The Guilty

Directed by: Gustav Möller

Screenplay by: Gustav Möller & Emil Nygaard Albertsen

Produced by: Lina Flint

Starring: Jakob Cedergren, Johan Olsen, Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi, Jacob Hauberg Lohmann, Katinka Evers-Jahnsen.

2018 Sundance Film Festival

WINNER: World Cinema Dramatic – Audience Award

Opening on a blank screen, the phone rings.

Asgar (Jakob Cedergren) answers, ‘Emergency Services.’

Set entirely in the room housing the work spaces for those answering and directing the urgent calls incoming, the film focuses on the mysterious Asgar as he shows the classic signs of burn-out: a short temper, the wringing of hands as he attempts to help yet another drunk and abusive caller.

When he receives the call from Iben (Jessica Dinnage) he soon realises she’s been kidnaped, as she pretends to be calling her young daughter while Asgar attempts to find out where she is to send help.

The jaded Asgar comes to life as the tension rises – he makes a promise to Iben’s daughter he’ll get her mother home, even if he has to go off-book to help her.

But there’s something not right with Asgar.

He says he’s a protector, ‘We protect people who need help.’

He’s also a mystery.

The Guilty is a tense psychological thriller as we’re taken down a dark road of murder, fear and the frustration of being on the end of the phone trying to get to the person on the other side.

Director Gustav Möller states, ‘I believe that the strongest images in film, the ones that stay with you the longest; they are the ones, you don’t see.’

Möller has used this concept to build the suspense and mystery as Asgar tries to piece together the crime unfolding on the other end of the line.

We don’t see the crime; what we see is the warning of a red light switching on when the call is taken; the staring into space as aspirin dissolves into bubbles; the ringing of hands as they shake.

The silence is broken by the phone ringing, the soundtrack of the film, as the mystery of the caller and Asgar are revealed like, ‘A big blue silence.’

This is a gripping film that’s more a character-driven story who’s mystery is revealed in the suspense of solving a crime we can’t see.  What we hear is the fear in a voice, a knocking on a door, the traffic in the background and the sound of tyres on a road taking the unwilling somewhere Asgar needs to find out if he’s going to save the person on the other side of the call.

Greta

Rated: MA15+Greta

Directed by: Neil Jordan

Written by: Neil Jordan, Ray Wright

Produced by: James Flynn, Lawrence Bender, John Penotti

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Chlöe Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe.

Like the ominous drone of a train running through the tunnels of the New York City subway, Greta is all about the darkness that runs beneath the surface.

Frances (Chlöe Grace Moretz) has that newly-arrived innocence.  She hasn’t been bitten by the nasty of New York.  Originally from Boston, she lives with her best friend Erica (Maika Monroe (It Follows (2015)) in her loft.

Frances still believes in doing the right thing.  Until she meets Greta (Isabelle Huppert).

Greta has thought of the perfect ruse, preying on the kindness of ‘suckers’: she leaves a green leather bag on the train with an identity card, amongst other convincing paraphernalia, noting her address.

So when Frances finds the bag (and Lost and Found is closed – but would they be closed all the time?  I wasn’t entirely convinced…), she takes the bag back to the rightful owner – much to the disgrace of Erica: ‘This city’s going to eat you alive’.

A telling statement for what’s to come.

The kindness of the older French woman, Greta, seems to fill a hole in Frances’ life; to become the mother figure that’s missing after the death of her mother the year before.

But Greta is sticky.

And as the worldly-wise Erica says, The more persistent, the more crazy.

Writer and director Neil Jordan, ‘saw GRETA as a story about obsession. Every friendship begins with a promise of sorts, he believes: “‘I’ll be your friend if you’ll be mine. We’ll share things. I’ll tell you about my life, if you tell me about yours.’ If those little gestures are used in a malevolent way it becomes kind of terrifying.’

Greta feels like a classic style of psychological thriller, such as the stalking films, Misery (1990) and Fatal Attraction (1987); but with the older crazy woman being the seductress of a young girl.  Greta invades the life of Frances, demanding everything like an obsessed lover.

Isabelle Huppert, ‘interpreted the script as an ambiguous love story.’

And the closeup camerawork make the most of Chlöe Graces’ (as Frances) pretty face that adds to that strange dynamic of: Surrogate daughter? Friend? Lover?

But I’m not sure why this dynamic didn’t quite resonate with me – the idea of the trap is clever.

As is the splicing and camerawork of the descent of Frances’ capture.

There’s this strange brevity from Isabelle Huppert as Greta, her clever euphemisms and light dancing of stockinged feet giving Greta more dimension than just crazy.

I believed the kindness and intelligence more than the psychopathic nature of her character.

And I think this is because the depth of psychology or explanation wasn’t explored – why was Greta crazy?

And what happened to her husband?

Not the psychological thriller I was hoping for but there’s some clever here with some tense and surprising moments.

Arctic

Rated: MArctic

Directed by: Joe Penna

Written by: Joe Penna, Ryan Morrison

Produced by: Christopher Lemole, Tim Zajaros, Noah C. Haeussner

Composed by: Joseph Trapanese

Cinematographer: Tómas Ӧrn Tómasson

Starring: Mads Mikelsen, Maria Thelma Smáradóttir.

2018 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection – Midnight Section

Stranded in endless white snow punctuated by black rock, we see a man stranded.

Chains on the soles of thick rubber boots, scarf over mouth, beanie over head: eyes squint against the cold.

The beep from his watch is an alarm, marking the passing of one task to another – a methodical schedule to stay alive.

‘They’ll be here soon,’ he keeps saying.

‘We’ll be fine.’

There’s no introduction to this character.  All that’s revealed is he’s stranded, waiting for rescue because near the wreck of a small plane, he’s dug in the snow an: SOS.

The film reveals who he is by showing how he survives.

The film was shot in the highlands of Iceland during the winter – a lone surviver surrounded by virgin snow had its challenges, states cinematographer Tómas Ӧrn Tómasson.

Yet with all the difficulties of snow storms, car doors becoming unhinged in the wild wind and the unpredictability and change of weather, director Joe Penna has created a quietly moving film, using the wind, exerted breathing and touches of orchestral music (Joseph Trapanese) to expand the feeling of isolation and suspense as the character waits.

They’ll be here soon.

We’ll be fine.

When he realises he’s going to have to move, to find his rescue when a chopper finally finds him, only to crash-land because of a storm, the tension rises.

With all that quiet, there’s these perfectly timed moments that made me jump.

It’s not just the endurance of survival but all those things that can go wrong, because that’s life, right?!

Sometimes it’s so bad it’s funny

And this character gets it.  He can laugh… With tears in his eyes…

Mads is great in this role.  And a very likeable character.  A quiet strength was needed here – not an action hero, yet heroic for all his humanity.  He’s a relatable character shown in movement and expression because this is a film with very few words.

And I couldn’t look away.

Happy Death Day 2U

Rated: MHappy Death Day 2U

Directed and Written by: Christopher Landon

Based on Characters by: Scott Lobdell

Produced by: Jason Blum

Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Suraj Sharma, Steve Zissis, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken, Phi Vu, Sarah Yarkin.

The baby-faced masked killer is back, along with characters from the original, Happy Death Day (2017), including ‘crazy-white-girl’ Tree (Jessica Rothe) who manages to get sucked into The Death Cycle at the end of every day until she figures out who the killer is… again…

What made the original so successful was the character Tree and her self-deprecating, fatalistic dark humour.  We get the same tone here along with the suspense of waiting for the baby-masked killer to strike and the mystery of who’s behind the mask this time.

Christopher Landon has returned as director and writer (based on character by Scott Lobdell, writer of the original), throwing something extra into the storyline because there has to be a reason for the cycle to start all over again.

The clever re-cap gives a backstory for those who missed the first – but I recommend going back to watch Happy Death Day because it makes those moments of Tree reliving the hellish nightmare funnier.  And here, it’s fun to see familiar characters also get sucked into the cycle with a few new nerdy scientists added to explain the new dimension added to the story.

I have to say the ‘dohicky’ knitting Dean Bornson (Steve Zissis) is hilarious.

And here we get Ryan (Phi Vu) meeting his replica with an added touch of sci-fi lifting the sequel into a different space – so it’s the same concept, but the obstacles have changed.  Which was needed to make this a worthy follow-up rather than just more of the same – yeah, excuse the constant puns but can’t seem to help myself after leaving the cinema with a wry grin.

I had a lot of fun watching Happy Death Day 2 U, even getting into the teary dramatic moments of Tree struggling with the death of her mother and the choices she needs to make going forward in her life.

Although, I have to say the push at the end of the film felt tack-on and a too little much.

But there’s twists and turns, romance, suspense (not as much horror as the first though), and good humour making this sequel worth a watch.

Cold Pursuit

Rated: MA15+Cold Pursuit

Directed by: Hans Petter Moland

Screenplay by: Frank Baldwin

Based on the Movie, ‘Kraftidioten’ Written by: Kim Fupz Aakeson

Produced by: Michael Shamberg p.g.a, Ameet Shukla p.g.a

Starring: Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Laura Dern, John Doman, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, Gus Halper, Micheál Richardson, Michael Eklund, Bradley Stryker, Wesley Macinnes, Nicholas Holmes, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Michael Adamthwaite, William Forsythe, Elizabeth Thai, David O’Hara, Raoul Trujillo, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Mitchell Saddleback, Christopher Logan, Arnold Pinnock and Ben Cotton.

An English remake of the Norwegian film, In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) (2014), we certainly see a lot of people get, disappeared.

Set in the snowy mountains of Kehoe, Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) has just won the Citizen of the Year award.

He’s a simple, family man.  He plows snow so others can get to where they need to be. In his speech he says he was lucky, he picked a good road early and stayed on it.

Until his son is killed by drug dealers.

Cold Pursuit is a bloody revenge film filled with gangsters with names like: The Eskimo, Speedo and Wingman…  Because, well, it’s a gangster thing.

There’s this quirky dark humour where small-town cop Gip (John Doman) thinks drugs should be legalised – to give the people what they want, tax the shit out of it, so the government can double the cops’ pay.

But more than that, the sheer number of people who get killed (see the number of actors cast above) and how they get killed, is… funny.

There are so many funny moments that mostly hit the mark and sometimes don’t.  Pink phones and rubber ducks didn’t quite make it for me.

But added details like the plush hotel with the white fake fur reception desk getting a buff and brush, tickled.

What I realised as the film progressed was the presence of Liam Neeson as the main character, and the clever way director, Hans Petter Moland, uses Neeson’s gravitas for comic effect.

I really like Neeson in this film: still the hero, still the family man – like we’ve seen so many times before – but all that history he owns in that hero-family-man role is used to add another layer to the film.

A revenge, shoot-em-up movie with elements of gangster turned on its head with a super-food conscious villain (AKA Viking), a Thai ball-breaker wife making a tropical paradise in the middle of snowy mountains, a profile-in-pink drug dealer who also sells wedding dresses and drug dealing Native Americans who adore wearing mustard yellow gloves.

Sure the humour is laid on a bit thick and tried too hard at times, but the balance of action, drama, violence and those gallows-humour, ticklish moments made for a (mostly) great entertainer.

Got to say, Liam Neeson’s still got it.

Capharnaüm

Rated: MCapharnaüm

Directed by: Nadine Labaki

Screenplay by: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeiy, Michelle Kesrouani

Screenplay in Collaboration with: Georges Khabbaz

The Participation of: Khaled Mouzanar

Original Music: Khaled Mouzanar

Produced by: Khaled Mouzanar, Michel Merkt

Starring: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawthar Al Haddad, Fadi Kamel Youssef, Haita Cedra Izam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Nadine Labaki.

A slice of life taken from the streets of Lebanon, Capharnaüm means chaos: a place where kids get washed-down by hoses at a car repair garage, old men wear cockroach-man costumes with sticky tape wound around the wing of glasses, and to stop kids crying out in hunger, they’re feed ice cubes dusted with sugar instead of food.  These are the details that give this film life.

Capharnaüm is a story of fiction based on many true stories.  This is a story about Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) who eventually sues his parents for being born.  Into a hell, to be constantly told to f*#k off.  Without papers, to be nothing but an insect.

But without children, ‘you’re not a man’, explains his father.

To keep the tone of the film as close to the true stories director Nadine Labaki heard as she researched the project for three years, walking through the streets and detention centres, she cast non-professional actors to play a part very similar to their own lives.  The judge is an actual judge.  The Daraa clashes in Syria (2012) forced Zain’s parents to move to Lebanon with four children.

Nadine walked with cap and sunglasses until she found the source for the story she wanted to convey – one of destitution, courage, the want to be a good person and all the eating of shit to survive.

Zain lives in a household where his parents fight for every scrap, the children too poor to go to school.  Twelve-year-old Zain is sent to work at the landlord’s market where he carts containers of water while watching a school bus, front grill packed with children’s backpacks, the bus a place where he should be: talking about tests coming up, notebooks to be filled.

The little man in a blue jacket, white stripes down the sleeves – he watches.

When his parents sell his adored sister off to the landlord in marriage at the age of eleven, he leaves home.

I immediately warmed to this kid, his courage and maturity, his love for his sister Sahar (Haita Cedra Izam), trying to protect her from the world he understands too well.

Fending for himself on the street, Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) an Ethiopian woman and illegal worker who can’t afford to renew her forged papers, takes Zain home.  She has a baby, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) to care for and no one to look after him while she works.  It’s a calculated risk shown in the look of a mother leaving her baby with an eleven-year-old stranger.

And what a beautiful baby.  I could not watch this film and not fall for this child.  So adorable, even the guys in the audience were captivated by Yonas’ clapping hands and sudden grin.

It’s the characters who take the hand of the audience, to lead through the squalor, where the small sparks of beauty are made more touching.

We see Zain struggle until eventually he’s incarcerated: ‘Stab the son-of-a-bitch!’ Zain yells when he’s being held in jail.  To be taken to court, to sue his parents.

Capharnaüm doesn’t have the tone of a drama or even a documentary.  There’s something in-between here – a picture of how it goes when your parents are too poor to get a Birth Certificate, to be not recognised as a person, not exist: to be no one.

There’s this moment where Zain patiently corrects a girl selling funeral wreaths that the man’s name is ‘Aspero’, not ‘Ospero’.  I’m sure this was off-script but another moment to add to the story.  To see more of the boy, Zain.

There’s something so refreshing about the honesty of this kid.

The camera is shot low, to show the point of view of these no-one kids, trying to be good.  Trying to survive.  Trying to tell the adults not to be idiots.

Yes, it’s a sad story.  But I found myself filled with a faith in humanity, to see the courage and love from the ones that society is supposed to be taking care of.

Ironically, the ones who are no-one made me want to believe in people again.

The Combination Redemption

Rated: MA15+  The Combination Redemption

Directed by: David Field

Written by: George Basha

Produced by: George Basha, David Field, John Tedesco

Starring: George Basha, Abbey Aziz, Johnny Nasser, Tony Ryan, Rahel Romahn, Taylor Weise, Adre de Vanny.

After seeing the trailer for, The Combination Redemption, I walked in dubious but hoping from some good Aussie crime.

I was right to be dubious with the contrived romance between returning character John Morkos (George Basha) and therapist, love interest, Amira (Abbey Aziz).  You know those painful, forced love-in’s that have no chemistry but are forced anyway? Yeah, ouch.

John meets Amira because she’s originally his therapist – not that a Bachelor in Psychology would qualify these days…  After his younger brother’s murder (in the 2009 acclaimed original, The Combination), John needs more than his passion for boxing to get him through his grief.

Thankfully, the romance between Christian boxing trainer and Muslim psychologist does evolve and become less painful with a bit of humour from Amira’s brothers.

What I did appreciate was the piecing together of scenes (editor: Shelley O’Neil) and clever camera work (director of photography: Robert Morton) of graffiti tagged water-ways and tunnels.  And the fight scenes were realistic with blood oozing from head-wounds.

It’s pretty confronting stuff.

The film explores racist violence – featuring shorn-off shotguns – enticed by politicians, the rhetoric sounding familiar with the debate of immigration still raging in Australia.  Here, the violence is taken too far by drug-fuelled anger from members of a white supremacist group who believe in a white Australia, saying things like the Indigenous population and original land owners, must have taken the country from the white’s somewhere in the distant past.

There’re drug dealers trying to recover stolen money from runners who’ve had enough of making the boss money with nothing of their own, adding more of that crime element to the story – this is where the film really comes alive.

The soundtrack added another layer to the story, a memorable moment a thunderstorm booming during the boxing scene of John fighting for his life against real-life boxing star, George Kambosos Jnr.

And the percussion and drums are like a rapid heart-beat punctuating the violence and drama of living in a multi-cultural city that struggles to accept differences in religious belief.

There’s a lot going on here: racism, drugs, religion, love, family, grief…  I would have preferred less drama, sticking with the boxing and crime.  Perhaps even a TV mini-series to round-out all the complexities.

Cringe-worthy moments aside, there’s plenty of twists and turns while capturing the underbelly of life in Western Sydney.  I just wish the film stuck with the fisty cuffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOwKhsT1fpA

Ben Is Back

Rated: MBen Is Back

Directed and Written by: Peter Hedges

Produced by: Peter Hedges, Nina Jacobson, Teddy Schwarzman, Brad Simpson

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Rachel Bay Jones, David Zaldivar, Alexandra Park, Mia Fowler, Jakari Fraser.

It’s Christmas time.  Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is singing in the church choir while her mother, Holly (Julia Roberts) looks on with her two youngest from her second marriage, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and Liam (Jakari Fraser).

The snow is falling as Ben (Lucas Hedges) crunches across the yard towards the house.

He knows no one is home.

Ben is back

This is a film about addiction.  About the hold it takes and the effect on family and a mother who refuses to give up on her son.

Sounds dramatic, right?

I went into the cinema expecting a traumatic, family drama to unfold with Julia Roberts as the mother weeping and screaming the whole way through…

But there’s restraint from director (and writer) Peter Hedges, allowing the writing to tell the story without the need for over-acting – the story made more emotive because of the quiet telling.

It feels like the film is about someone Hedges knows; a brave move casting his son, Lucas Hedges as the son in the film, learning to live with all his actions as an addict, returning home to try again as he struggles to share his need.

Lucas is perfect for this role.

There’s something so genuine in his manner.  I first saw him in his role as Jared (a young man trapped in a re-education program, Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of his homosexuality) in Boy Erased.

He’s brought the same believability here: the charisma, the cunning, the pain.

And Julia Roberts nailed her role as his mother, knowing she’ll never stop trying, never let go.

It’s a sad and heavy tale as Ben takes his mother to re-visit his past as a junkie; the danger and humiliation endured to feed his addiction.   There’s insight into the pain and grip the drug takes on a person and cost of all those who love them.

I’m not saying I overly enjoyed watching this film, but I’m impressed by the way this film was shown.  Without getting slapped in the face, we get to see the sadistic nature of addiction and the consequences on a family that feels very like any other normal family.

We’re also shown the view from the addict – the initial want to share the experience because they think they’ve found a truth worth sharing.  People become addicts for a reason.

The film doesn’t demonise the user, it’s more about understanding.

‘When you get shaky, go to a meeting,’

There’s a lot of debate currently about harm-minimisation, with the recent deaths over New Year at music festivals because of drug over-dose.  It’s easy to say yes, I think that legal drug-testing onsite to see the ingredients is a good idea.  I personally think it would make the dealers sell a far more pure product.  But the reminder of the addictive nature of drugs shown in this films demonstrates the ripple of catastrophic consequences addiction has on the user, families and communities.

Holding a pack with the brown heroin showing through, Ben’s mother, Holly personalises the substance by saying, ‘You monster’.

And that’s what the film manages to achieve, a personalisation of addiction.

https://youtu.be/eV384La_Q9Q

The Mule

Rated: MThe Mule

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Screenplay by: Nick Schenk

Based on: “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick

Produced by: Clint Eastwood, Tim Moore, Kristina Rivera, Jessica Meier, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia.

More than anything, The Mule is a character-driven film, revolving around the audacity of ninety-year-old Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood – himself now 88 years-old) getting away with transporting millions of dollars of drugs loaded into the back of his pick-up for a cartel: ‘Maybe you enjoyed living in the moment a little too much.  That’s why you’re working for us,’ one of the bosses tells him.

Based on an article published in the New Yorker “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick, Earl is doing well in 2005.  He’s a horticulturist winning trophies.  He’s missing his daughter’s wedding.  This is his life.

Fast forward twelve years and his business has fallen apart, like his marriage.  His daughter hasn’t spoken to him since he missed her wedding.

This is his life.

He’s broke.

So when he gets an opportunity to get out on the road again and get paid envelopes filled with cash at the other end, it’s easy money.

Earl fought in Korea.  Guns don’t scare him.  The cartel guys don’t scare him.  He’s a cranky, politically incorrect old codger who gets friendly with the cartel guys while he gets richer.

It’s a great role for Eastwood – quirky and certain, brave and a pain in the arse.  His character evolves as his family becomes more of a focus in his life, so there’s the family drama here as well.

And there’s some big names in supporting roles, Brad Cooper as DEA Agent Colin Bates when meeting Earl over coffee likes him, telling him, ‘you’ve lived so long you’ve lost your filter’.  There’s Michael Peña as fellow DEA Agent, Laurence Fishburne heads up the DEA and there’s Andy Garcia as the cartel King Pin – but all these big names are all in support of the legend that is Clint Eastwood, lead role and director.

I would have liked more of the criminal element, making more of the star-studded cast, but it’s really about the entertainment of the character, Earl, and his ability to get away with his crime as a drug mule because who’s going to believe a ninety-year-old gringo’s shifting drugs for a cartel?

The Mule is more drama than thriller (some-what disappointingly) but there’s some good humour here, delivered by one of the greats.

Free Solo

Rated: MFree Solo

Directed by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin

Produced by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes

Cinematographer: Jimmy Chin

Featuring: Alex Honnold

‘I see it all rooted in rationalism, in a basic evaluation of objective reality: Can I do this?  And if I can, then I just do it’ – Alex Honnold.

After nine years of living in a van, living a ‘dirt-bag’ climber existence, professional rock climber Alex Honnold overcomes the most fearsome feat for a ground dweller to contemplate: to free solo climb (rock climbing without rope or any safety net if he falls) the El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  A 3200-foot climb that climbing with ropes requires a gold medal standard of skill.

To climb without a safety-net requires an iron-clad emotional armour where fear has no place.

This ability to overcome fear became such a fascination Alex agreed to have a Functional-MRI scan to analyse the function of his brain while pictures of fearful images were shown: knives, heights (ha, ha).  It was interesting to see his amygdala showed no activation compared to the control.

Alex explains he’s faced his fears so often there’s no fear left.

Director Jimmy Chin explains the difficulty in filming a documentary where the threat of death is as close as you can get.  It has its issues.  Especially when you’re friends with the guy.

It’s all about trusting the subject (friend) to make the right decisions and not push just because he’s on camera.  And that trust and not wanting to see someone you know fall to their death while you’re filming creates a whole other dimension to the film because we see the type of personality it takes to contemplate, let alone, achieve something so dangerous, scary, impossible.

Adding girlfriend, Sanni McCandless, to the mix just shows the layers of emotion Alex has to process, or not – he’s kinda a cold rational thinker adding a bizarre lightness to the tone of the film – to get to a headspace to make such a climb.

Free Solo wasn’t so much a thrill ride, although I kept repeating, Oh my God.  Oh. My. GOD – the ‘Boulder Problem’ part of the climb had me gripping the arm rest of my seat.  The film was more an insight into the process to get to that headspace – iron-clad determination combined with a shrug of, We’ve all got to die at some stage.

Finding the edge just makes death feel more immediate.  If you die in an accident, then it’s a shame – you’ll be missed.  But dying on your own terms changes the dynamic.  Life is short.  Live it.

When someone loves you, like Alex’s seemingly accident-provoking, ever-loving girlfriend Sanni, then there’s more to lose.

The film asks, but if you don’t do what you love than how do you feel alive?

Free Solo isn’t a documentary just about Alex, it also brings the film makers into the story, to show the truth of what Alex’s trying to achieve.  It’s crazy.  To film the climb is crazy.  But he does it.  And it’s amazing.

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