...an intriguing structure that teases you to make negative assumptions before unveiling its deeper human component.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2022

The cameras of 'Meru' merely bear witness to the act rather than explore the root of obsession that motivates the triumph.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2021

[L]ensing captures the beauty, the danger and the exhilaration of the entire venture...A testament to all that precedes it, is the generosity of spirit that overwhelms one when the MERU summit is finally reached.

| Dec 8, 2019

It is a story well-told from beginning to end, leaving you both inspired... and utterly exhausted.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 16, 2019

Meru is not just a mind-blowing mountain doc. It's a great character piece, a portrait of three daredevil climbers, each with his own stranger-than-fiction backstory.

| Aug 8, 2019

What makes the movie so compelling is its revelations of what it cost them to get there.

| Oct 11, 2017

Meru is a picture that appeals to novices and masters of the sport alike, a harrowing look at the dangers, motivations, stakes and spirituality involved in the craft of climbing.

| Sep 23, 2017

The feature length documentary Meru is WOW jaw-droppingly heartbreaking and compelling because it is as truthful as it is beautiful.

| Jun 20, 2017

Climbing the dangerous Mount Meru requires a mixed bag of wide-ranging skill sets: you must rock climb, ice climb, mixed rock/ice climb, big-wall climb, advanced aid climb, and have endurance for altitude and severe cold weather. You must be a wizard.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 6, 2016

Part awe-inspiring nature documentary, part personal reflective journey, Meru gives equal weight to both of these sides of the coin.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 21, 2016

A film about a climb more daredevilish than Philippe Petit's tightrope walk. Brilliantly filmed by the climbers who are as good at cinema as in climbing up the face of a mountain.

| Feb 12, 2016

Likely to appeal to the extreme sports market and leave the rest of us stranded.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 11, 2016

As a spectacle, it offers a vertiginous, first person view of events, but it's equally immersive as candid psycho-drama of survival.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 11, 2016

While many of the climbing sequences have a sense of thrill to them, the film as a whole just lacks a narrative oomph to make it anything more than a good film...

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 20, 2016

This documentary has it all -- high adventure and accessible emotions of these rare people who challenge one of the toughest mountain routes in the world. It is an adventure, and it is inspiring.

| Original Score: A | Dec 23, 2015

There's something cool about daredevils who are not afraid to defy death

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 14, 2015

'Because it is there' doc chronicling a trio of intrepid mountain climbers death-defying assault on one of the world's most perilous peaks.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2015

Watching these three men fight for every foot of altitude is far more exhausting than seeing a superhero defy gravity - and far more inspiring.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 25, 2015

It's the kind of story that you couldn't make up, and the film is by turns surprising and heart-pounding.

| Oct 21, 2015

Enough gut-wrenching action sequences and stunningly beautiful vistas to thrill theater-seat adventurers and hardcore extreme-sports addicts alike.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2015