Ups the ante on 2018's "Free Solo" by quite a bit. Imagine climbing 9,000 feet using crampons and ice axes to hang off 8th-of-an-inch rock ledges and shaky ice pillars... with no rope. Not for the faint of heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2023

This is an unforgettable documentary about a free-spirited nonconformist who lived his life to its fullest while engaged in the extreme dangers of free solo mountain climbing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2022

If there's anything to be learned from The Alpinist, it's that [Marc-André] Leclerc's choice to dedicate his life to free solo mountain climbing came not from having a death wish but from being motivated to live his life to the fullest.

| Nov 6, 2021

An entertaining, brain-feeding and sometimes nerve-shredding 90-minute cinematic experience.

| Oct 13, 2021

Leclerc's ability to hold his storytellers at bay is a fitting and frustrating reality that makes The Alpinist such a curious and fascinating affair.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 28, 2021

Never heard of [Leclerc]? Well you won't forget him once you've seen this.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2021

It's an intriguing insight into a particular kind of obsessive drive, and a portrait of a man who, as one of his contemporaries remarked, feels almost too comfortable on the side of a mountain.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2021

What we have here is more a character study, yet even on that front it's quite elusive.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 27, 2021

By raising questions not only about our fascination with these climbers, but also about their pursuit of life-threatening challenges, The Alpinist reaches new heights.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2021

Leclerc deserves the attention, even if he doesn't always relish it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2021

[Leclerc] picking his way up frozen waterfalls... beautifully captures the meditative side of climbing that makes this sport (and in these moments, this film) so unique.

| Sep 23, 2021

As you can imagine, the photography is spectacular and not for the faint-hearted.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2021

Somehow, every time he's on screen, either on the ground on in the sky, all that melts away in awe of the vertiginous sorcery before us, until, in moments of deeply-felt emotion, we are reminded that Leclerc is as human and vulnerable as the rest of us.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2021

Leclerc's story goes in a slightly different, somewhat unexpected direction. The film-makers' enthusiasm for his clarity of purpose is all well and good, but it does leave the film prone to hyperbole...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2021

The film is too pedestrian to really share Leclerc's spirit - but it captures some of his ascents in scenes both hypnotic and terrifying, and in those you sense you glimpse the essence of him, wholly in the now.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2021

Extreme sports without glorifying the extreme masculinity that often goes hand in hand with climbing documentaries.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 21, 2021

The movie is an interesting balancing act between giving the subject the space he requires and capturing some of the boldest climbs in history.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2021

"The Alpinist" conveys the joy of undiluted adventure Leclerc would get from tackling an ascent for the first time, while also making quite real the dangers inherent in the sport.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2021

Mortimer's film is entertaining and unexpectedly emotional, mixing vertiginous footage of Leclerc scaling impossible heights with a psychological exploration of what attracts people to such dangerous situations again and again.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2021

In the biggest compliment I can pay it, I left the film understanding why Leclerc did what he did, I just couldn't fathom doing it myself.

| Sep 16, 2021