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

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

There's a lack of satisfaction that makes it different and not quite as good as Free Solo... but it's interesting and impressive.

| Sep 10, 2021

The images here are often dizzying and dazzling.

| Sep 10, 2021

Mortimer and Rosen's film succeeds most as a sincere, wonderstruck tribute to a fellow climber.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 10, 2021

A winning testament to Leclerc and to all "outsiders" who have achieved the remarkable and lost their lives in the process.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2021

It does capture its subject's philosophy.

| Sep 9, 2021

"The Alpinist" has built-in drama, simply by virtue of who and what it sets out to document.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2021

Having a subject who largely refuses to cooperate, thereby forcing the filmmakers to sit around at home and relate much of what happens indirectly, doesn't exactly make for a classic.

| Original Score: C | Sep 8, 2021

Pack some motion sickness tablets and experience it on the biggest possible screen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2021

The Alpinist works as a moving testament to Leclerc's incredible life and the art of alpinism itself, while even finding time to tactfully wrestle with the difficult reconciliation of the reckless danger versus the peerless beauty of such an undertaking.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 2, 2021

Leclerc's lack of introspection - you never forget his youth - puts a lot of pressure on the other talking heads. Fortunately, The Alpinist can always count on Harrington for amusing or poignant beats.

| Aug 30, 2021

The dizzying feats of mountaineering in Free Solo may have put you off documentaries about young men clinging to cliff faces, but if you do still have a head for heights, then try The Alpinist.

| Aug 30, 2021