Directed By Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Starring – Hilaree Nelson, Jim Morrison, Mikey Schaefer

The Plot – An intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition, and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport: Everest’s north face.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and brief strong adult language.

Everest: The Other Side | Trailer | In Theaters October 30

POSITIVES

After tasting Oscars’ gold back in 2018, with their critically acclaimed documentary ‘Free Solo’, Chin and Vasarhelyi have reunited to revel in the same environmental adversaries that cultivate the kind of stakes and suspense that fictionally crafted narratives could only dream of, and while the two films structurally share a lot of commonality in corresponding themes and thrill-seeking outlook among its depicted protagonists, the most meaningful link between them undoubtedly resides within the complex filmmaking of the directorial duo as they revel in the intimacy of awkward or tense real-life moments that surmise fallible humanity to their larger-than-life missions. This is especially the case with the dynamic between Hilaree and Jim, to which the narrative storytelling provides unobstructed access, ample time, and thorough documentation to illustrate not only the connective link that allowed each of them to fill internally what the other one was missing among previous relationships, but also an admirable resiliency post-tragedy towards thematic impulses of grief, loss and the redeeming power of catharsis, that makes this such a gut-wrenching engagement pertaining to human endurance and fragility, where every single step of such an unpredictable and incalculable objective carries with it the weight of the world from so many of these members of Jim’s crew and the filmmakers alike sacrificing life an limb to succeed at a seemingly impossible objective, especially with an atmosphere like Everest’s feeling like it’s constantly breathing down the necks of those who wish to challenge it. As difficult as it is to articulate the on-site environmental aspects that are constantly shifting and physically working against this overexerted crew, National Geographic does a remarkable job of capturing the grueling circumstances as closely and chaotically as artistically imaginable, both with remarkable cinematography and boldly immersive sound designs that help flesh out an isolation factor that feels worlds away from even the most remote of civilization. On the former, the trio of Chin, Clair Popkin, and Christopher Murphy scale Everest with a rich assortment of framing techniques that not only correspond seamlessly between so many characters without delay or dejection, with a combination of drone and helicopter footage, as well as first-person on-the-ground perspectives, that coherently cover the character beats without ever feeling limited by the dimensionality of the ascent, but also illustrates the kind of breathtaking scenic splendor that simultaneously captures both the beauty and immensity of life, gifting us limitless opportunity to indulge in the kind of masterfully stoic framing that could and should be hung in art galleries across the world. As for the aforementioned soundscapes, the mixing of the transistor radio conversations between crew members is clear and concise without directly intruding on the heft or blanketing nature of enveloping avalanches or overpowering wind patterns, breeding an unwavering anxiousness to the confliction of characters that emphasizes the difficulty of attempting to constantly move forward, when so much has them smothered in place. While it’s incredibly rare that a documentary receives nominations in technical categories, the authenticity of the aesthetics here provide the kind of three-dimensional tangibility that renders the environment as interpretably unwavering as artistically conceivable, leaving little to chance with effectively gauging the magnitude of what is being attempted, while the narration from assembled speaking guests progresses patiently to keep from ever intruding in the immediacy of the visuals playing out in real time, affording an unpredictability factor to the engagement that very few films this year have effectively adorned. In terms of those spliced interviews, while Chin and Vasarhelyi rely heavily upon them during the opening act, in order to convey much of the backstory of the couple, or historical facts about the mountain, they responsibly become less consistent as the film persists into its superior second half, where without the navigated footing from the guests to trace out the direction of a depicted moment, the duo instead allow audiences to experience things within the same kind of contextual spontaneity as those involved, helping to articulate the instability of an environment that inflicts its will at moments that I rarely ever saw coming. The most meaningful depositions are undeniably those pertaining to the adventuristic impulses of Jim and Hilaree’s accounted love story, specifically as they converge their two distinctly different lifestyles into one familial foundation, but even when the narrative steps outside of this heartily endearing sentiment, the additional expansion of assembled scalers or even Vasarhelyi herself, never loses sight of the remarkable risks assembled at home from such a dangerously devastating lifestyle, reminding us at the end of the day that these are everyday humans attempting larger-than-life feats for their own instinctive impulses.

NEGATIVES

In terms of counterproductive measures at the film’s duress, there are meandered moments where the directorial duo’s honesty and transparency comes to get the better of them, particularly during the unfiltered depicted on-screen death of one its framed characters, which borders on the tastelessly exploitative side of depicted raw trauma that lacks any semblance of sensitivity towards the families involved. On one hand, while the accessibility of the production’s limitless footage allowed for such a monumental moment to be captured in front of the lens, as a rare feat in documentary cinema, simultaneously the jest of a paying audience feeling like they’ve stumbled into a family matter that they have no right to be intruding upon carries with it a conflictual burden that never grows any easier to watch in the passage of a nearly two hour runtime, especially once the children of this character are utilized to articulate a deeper and more spiritual side of their background, and while the imagery doesn’t include anything overly graphic to the depiction, I do feel like it would’ve been just as effectively gut-wrenching with some editing tactics to purge away from the peril transpiring before us, without sacrificing the clarity of what’s transpiring, where instead the filmmaking revels a bit closer than expected or needed at capitalizing on moments that deserved grace and class instead of humility and horror. As for that aforementioned leaps with morality, the film and its characters has a bit of trouble in their glorifying of irresponsible danger, which risks the love and stability of those waiting at home, for thrills that can never be fully justified in their explanation, making it all the more difficult to empathize and relate to those involved with the climb, which in turn undercuts the emotionality during some of their most meaningful moments. As a former professional wrestler myself, I can certainly understand the inexplicable need of feeding a yearning from within that very few others will capably comprehend, but I never risked any children or spouses as a result of my own selfishness, and considering the film never faithfully pursues the at-home consequences in the depths of some family’s interviewing depositions, it leaves the realities of these excursions feeling a bit underdeveloped in how they correspondingly clash with the heroes outline that the movie frames each of them with, leaving the emotionality in the film feeling a bit undercooked by characters who leave their households so effortlessly to mostly fill another man’s dream. Finally, while I never expected shameless shilling in a documentary, I can accurately assess that the film is submerged by product placement that elicits intrusive commercialization during such life-or-death sequences, with one particular brand attaining all of the involved acclaim. The North Face is the guilty party involved, this time around, where their expensive gear contrasts poorly with the sensibilities of the surrounding of Sherpas, crafting not only a hilariously morbid juxtaposition of the company advertising accidental death among its customers, but also a pre-meditated opportunity to push sales, leaving the raw and unscripted vulnerability of its characters continuously compromised by overt imagery so glaring that the film might as well involve ad placements similar to most Youtube videos anymore.

OVERALL
‘Everest: The Other Side’ is a visually stunning vertigo-inducing daredevil of a documentary that not only crafts an unpredictably tense atmosphere, as a result of an absorbingly immersive presentation, but also a complex story about navigated grief that sees its conflicted characters determinately driven by their ambitious objectives. While the film represents a valuable follow-up for Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, after their Oscar-winning acclaim for ‘Free Solo’, consistently it’s conflicted by shameless product shilling and even insensitivity that squanders its sentiment, leaving a bit of a daunting climb for those seeking closure through catharsis

My Grade: 7.5 or B