Everest: The Other Side: reviews

What the critics say average 6.8 from 18 outlets

• 10 Film ThreatAndy Howell Judged on its cinematic merits, 'Everest: The Other Side' is easily a 10/10. It is incredible. It should not exist, but it does. It is something to see, something wondrous and unsettling. So see it in IMAX, and be prepared. Just know it will leave you shaken. Read
• 8.3 IndiewireRyan Lattanzio This is not soothing nature-doc viewing, but instead, a clear-eyed stare into the face of death, with a dash of marital angst, too. Chin and Vasarhelyi's greatest achievement is managing to mine and mount suspense even when the climax is already foretold. Read
• 8.0 Time OutPhil de Semlyen Beyond all the extraordinary photography of Himalayan mountain ranges, icy crevasses and plunging couloirs, 'Everest: The Other Side' is a film about how we choose to live our lives and what it means for those we love. Read
• 8.0 The WrapSiddhant Adlakha What seems, at first, like a thrilling but familiar daredevil documentary soon reveals a harrowing work of self-reflexive cinema that’s as tragic as it is triumphant. Read
• 8.0 The TelegraphTim Robey Nothing they say convinces me it's sensible, or that the urge couldn't be resisted. That's beside the point. By showing a handful of sherpas who baulk and back out, no longer willing to risk their necks for the aspirations of foreign tourists, the film acknowledges in passing that there are different ways of placing value on life. Read
• 8.0 Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele But generally, we sense a deeply bonded, well-trained team looking out for each other, considering every possibility and setting themselves up for a truly mind-boggling pinnacle. Read
• 7.5 Roger EbertMatt Zoller Seitz It pulls you into the whirlpool of Morrison’s mournful odyssey and nearly drowns you in his single-minded refusal to admit defeat. Read
• 7.5 ReelViewsJames Berardinelli In terms of movies documenting the harrowing realities of humanity's struggles against nature's most daunting obstacles, 'Everest: The Other Side' doesn't quite strike as rich and resonant a chord as 'Free Solo' or 'Touching the Void', but the setting alone allows it to come close to the peak of those productions. Read
• 7.0 Next Best PictureJosh Parham Despite itself, the film is still a moving exercise. Read
• 7.0 The RevealKeith Phipps Years in the making, it began as a film about a daring climbing feat but events forced it to evolve into an account of a tragedy and its aftermath. Read
• 6.3 Slant MagazineMarshall Shaffer 'Everest: The Other Side' offers an arresting illustration of what Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin do best, pairing the nail-biting tension of a sports drama with the epic sweep of a nature documentary. Read
• 6.3 Associated PressJake Coyle If 'Free Solo' was about an unmitigated triumph, 'Everest' wrestles with a darker side of such perilous exploits. Read
• 6.0 The GuardianLeslie Felperin But it's safe to say the ethics aired here are a far murkier affair. Read
• 5.0 The Hollywood ReporterRichard Lawson The Other Side works hard to combat or paste over the heavy moral questions it provokes, uplifting ending and all. But I left the theater feeling angry and bitter, suddenly put off by the whole project of mountaineering. Read
• 5.0 VarietyGuy Lodge It’s difficult to feel overly inspired by the eventual capture of a thrill that has fatally escaped many others; we’re simply left to wonder where Morrison’s insatiable yen will lead him next, and whether that, for better or worse, will be the final summit. Read
• 5.0 New York TimesManohla Dargis Process movies are often seductive, and this one has its obvious attractions. This is familiar terrain for Vasarhelyi and Chin, geographically and narratively. They know how to grab your attention and hold it with images of the natural world, and they understand the tug of daring human adventures. There is also much that they glide over, to predictable and, occasionally, distracting effect. Read
• 5.0 The Globe and MailRadheyan Simonpillai It’s hard to feel thrilled then, when the film gets us to the top of Everest, knowing we’re marginally complicit in how everyone involved got up there, or didn’t. Read
• 4.2 The PlaylistRafaela Sales Ross And while the great, victorious climax of Vasarhelyi and Chin's shot-for-IMAX epic is drenched in weep-inducing emotion, the film sits in an uncomfortable, verging-on-hypocritical middle ground, oddly lacking self-awareness even as it believes it is built on it. Read