Free Solo

Free Solo
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
  • Jimmy Chin
  • Shannon Dill
  • Evan Hayes
Starring Alex Honnold
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography
  • Jimmy Chin
  • Clair Popkin
  • Mikey Schaefer
Edited by Bob Eisenhardt
Production
company
Distributed by National Geographic Documentary Films
Release date
  • August 31, 2018 (2018-08-31) (Telluride)
  • September 28, 2018 (2018-09-28) (United States)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1.1 million[1]

Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The film profiles rock climber Alex Honnold, on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and also screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award: Documentaries.[2] It was released in the United States on September 28, 2018.

Reception

Box office

The film made $300,804 from four theaters in its opening weekend, surpassing Eighth Grade and An Inconvenient Truth, respectively, for the highest per-venue average of 2018 and of a documentary all-time with $75,201.[3] It expanded to 41 theaters in its second weekend, making $562,786.[4]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Free Solo depicts athletic feats that many viewers will find beyond reason - and grounds the attempts in passions that are all but universal."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]

Writing for Variety, Peter Debrudge said, "Apart from a slow stretch around the hour mark, the filmmakers keep things lively (with a big assist from Marco Beltrami's pulse-quickening score, the nail-biting opposite of Tim McGraw's soaring end-credits single, "Gravity"), featuring test runs at Zion National Park's Moonlight Buttress and the nearly sheer limestone cliffs in Taghia, Morocco."[7] Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called the film "bracingly made" and wrote, "I left the theater invigorated and rattled, in awe of this charismatic man's accomplishment but scared that it will inspire others to attempt the same...But maybe Free Solo's detailed, transfixing portrait of their hero will at least show some sort of barrier to entry, communicating to those eager wannabes that very few people indeed are built quite like Alex Honnold. And thank goodness, in a way, for that."[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Free Solo (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ "TIFF 2018 Awards: ‘Green Book’ Wins the People’s Choice Award, Upsetting ‘A Star Is Born’". IndieWire, September 16, 2018.
  3. ↑ Rubin, Rebecca (September 30, 2018). "'Free Solo' Documentary Climbs Indie Box Office With Best Screen Average of 2018". Variety. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  4. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 7, 2018). "'Venom' Still Showing $80M Fangs; 'A Star Is Born' Hitting $42M+ High Note In Record October Weekend". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Free Solo (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Free Solo reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Telluride Film Review: ‘Free Solo’". Variety, August 31, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Review: Free Solo Is a Dizzying, Fascinating Rock-Climbing Documentary". Vanity Fair, September 1, 2018.
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