The Alpinist

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.

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...

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.

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

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

The images here are often dizzying and dazzling.

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.

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.

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.

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