Free Solo

Despite the gravity-defying cinematography and alpine setting, Free Solo transcends the climbing world and intimately examines something universal. How can Honnold risk pain to the people who love him in pursuit of a lofty personal goal?

Free Solo would be an exceptional piece of filmmaking if it confined itself to the physical poetry of Mr. Honnold’s achievements. But it gets at his inner life too, and goes a long way toward answering the unspoken question of what makes — or allows — him to do what he does.

The pure athletics of Free Solo, which chronicles Honnold’s months-long training regimen as well as his subsequent attempts, would be spectacle enough to create an entertaining film.

There’s no denying that the domestic scenes of Free Solo are more powerful because you appreciate the madness of what Honnold is trying to do, and the climbing scenes are more powerful because you appreciate the full extent of what he’s risking to do it.

Even the documentary crew, composed of seasoned climbers and longtime friends, can barely watch their buddy painstakingly move up the peak.

The movie does a superb job showing the mental and physical preparation and effort required. And for all that, doubt and a little bit of fear persist, souring Honnold’s first try at a climb.

Free Solo goes some way to explaining just why someone would want to do such a thing, but is ultimately more captivated by the vicarious thrill of watching Honnold do his thing.

Cool movie. CAPS for el Cap. This review needs to be 75 characters long.....

I will never understand why anyone would want to free solo, and this movie does very little in explaining why either. I expected better editing and structure to the film and the film has a very peculiar build up to the final climb, I understand that the camera crew didn't know when he was going to do it but I also expect hindsight to play a part in the final product. Clearly the man in question has a lot of issues and so does the film. The film doesn't really do justice to the high stakes this man went through to reach the top because in the first minute of the film we see him reach the top! Whoever decided to do that is possibly the single worst person to have worked on this movie. Obviously I wanted him to reach the top but I also wanted to experience watching him doing it with the tension everyone else felt when they saw him do it in real life. Why ruin the film? why? Everything he did that was high risk now became underwhlming because you now he did it successfully already. If you make a documentary that records something so extraoordinary as what this man has done and you have to remind yourslef of how incredible it is, someone along the line of this production has slipped and plummeted to the death of their film making career.

I usually don't like my documentaries with mostly interviews. It's 80% interviews and back story with about 20 minutes at the end of the climb. It was a 4 hour climb for goodness sakes! You think that the majority of the movie would have been just the climb itself not the pretext up to it. I enjoyed it, but I fell asleep 3 times during the first 2/3rds

Alex Honnold is one of the least charismatic subjects I've ever seen central to a documentary. He scoffs at the notion of happiness and how it's not valuable because "happiness is available to everyone." Perhaps on the autism spectrum, he is mostly devoid of emotion and, by extension, perspective. His girlfriend tries desperately to coax any care, love or simple reaction from him. The relationship began after she saw him at a book signing so she didn't really know who he was. If he wasn't driven and successful, it would be fun to clock her exit speed out the door. Honnold actually wanted to break up with her at one point because she made a climbing mistake that led to an injury of his. This pathetic relationship, devoid of warmth from his end, totally envelopes the documentary. It's very difficult to watch as his girlfriend pretends that they could be normal one day. The cliffs themselves serve merely as a possible solution to Alex's detachment from understanding himself and the vibrant world around him. It's obvious that the filmmakers would have much rather portrayed Alex as an insightful thrill-seeker with a philosophical, spiritual mind and playful nature. The inspiration they/we were all hoping for and expecting. They are forced to show him for what he is: a ghost whom risks his life in search of his own humanity. That said, the feat itself, taking about ten minutes to show, was impressive. At the summit of El Capitan he is irritated that the phone call with his girlfriend is taking so long as she congratulates him.

(Mauro Lanari) An aspie who does aspy stuff. That's it. The real "peak experiences" are not those taken literally.