Mountain-climbing is, presumably, a balls-out thrill, but for the most part movies about mountain-climbing are dreary. The upward pace is glacial, the perils are predictable, the stakes are, shall we say, not so high. (Nobody starts humping K2 because they have to.) Truly, it’s the avocation of freaks, at least in the U.S. In the Alpine countries, it’s more of a hairy-chested lifestyle, and so Philipp Stölzl’s North Face (2008) has a intimacy with the ordeal that doesn’t come off merely as extreme-sport megalomania.
Excerpt from:
This Week’s Rent: Is North Face the Best Mountain-Climbing Movie Ever?
