Review: This Mountain-climbing Documentary Is Breaking Box-office Records Because It’s Great

By Ann Hornaday 3 1/2 stars; Rated PG-13; 100 minutes No, “Free Solo” isn’t the latest “Star Wars” installment. Upon reflection, however, fans of that franchise should make sure to see this riveting film, if only to experience action and derring-do at its most high-stakes, awe-inspiring and jaw-droppingly true. This often breathtaking real-life man-against-nature adventure is the second film co-directed by Jimmy Chin, who in 2015 made “Meru,” an even more spectacular, unnervingly immediate portrait of climbers attempting a death-defying ascent in the Himalayas. Related Articles 5 pieces of climbing wisdom from the guy who climbed Yosemite’s 3,000-ft El Capitan without a rope Front Range theaters add screens for Tommy Caldwell’s “Dawn Wall” documentary after nearly selling out Boulder man climbs up and down Second Flatiron 20 times in one day Climbing walls on the rise in Colorado — but not where you’d think Estes Park’s famed climber Tommy Caldwell recommends dumpster diving outside a Whole Foods In “Free Solo,” Chin teams up again with his “Meru” co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, with the team chronicling the exploits of champion climber Alex Honnold, whose specialty is scrambling up mountains and virtually any vertical plane without benefit of equipment or safety devices.