The Dawn Wall

"The Dawn Wall" transcends initial conventional sports documentary trappings, emerging as an affecting portrait of conquering personal limitations.

Stuffed with drama, both climbing-related and not.

A riveting and spectacular documentary ...

As the most genuine of crowd-pleasers, it will have you rooting instantly for the two hardworking, charismatic athletes. You'll start to root for the filmmaking, too.

Spectacular cinematography married to a compelling personality with an amazing life story makes this one of the best documentaries of 2018.

One of a kind...striking

Thoroughly captivating and mesmerizing. As exhilarating, suspenseful and heartfelt as Touching the Void.

While the climbing scenes are white-knuckle exciting, the filmmakers understand that thrills alone don't make for a good climbing documentary. We have to care about the climbers before they set one foot on the rock.

It's the camerawork by director of photography Brett Lowell and cinematographer Corey Rich (along with many other contributors) that impresses the most here.

Hanging off fingertips so high pines on the valley floor look like green washing-machine lint -- that's Caldwell's safe place. The Dawn Wall is the best example of living vicariously.

The Dawn Wall is as thrilling as it is profound, proving that you don't need CGI and stunts to make a movie. It is, in other words, the real deal.

In the End, watching The Dawn Wall becomes compulsive like a certain sort of computer game, the viewer effectively drawn into the climber's obsession.