REVIEW: The Rescue [2021]

We only have one shot at this. It takes a tragedy to realize it themselves, but the only certainty throughout the entire Tham Luang cave ordeal (where twelve boys and their soccer coach were trapped for eighteen days as the area’s monsoon season started a month early) is that the Thai Navy SEALs weren’t equipped to handle the rescue operation for which they were tasked. Possessing the necessary courage to belief for success isn’t enough when confronting a scenario outside your expertise. Diving for stealth and conducting rescues at sea…

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The 91st Oscars recap through tweets …

What a wild ride this Oscars season has been. After so much recent talk about inclusivity and a changing of the guard, it was bound to happen that we’d receive an awkward period of flux. There’s the young crowd cheering a Marvel Cinematic Universe chapter to the franchise’s first Best Picture nominee and the older sect feeling warm and gooey about a story pretending to talk about racism despite really just glossing over the struggle to say most racists are simply misunderstood until sharing a bucket of KFC with the…

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REVIEW: Free Solo [2018]

I realize my body would just explode on impact. Free climbing a mountain wall at any height is insane to me. So watching Alex Honnold gaze upon El Capitan with the simultaneous declarations that it scares the crap out of him and that conquering it without rope would be his ultimate goal makes me shudder. I’m all for hiking mountains like Whiteface in the Adirondacks or Mount Adams in New Hampshire because its fun to strap on a backpack with friends and embark on an adventure. Hand-over-hand gymnastics up sheer…

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REVIEW: Meru [2015]

“The best alpinists are the ones with the worst memory” You have to be a little bit crazy to mountain climb. If I didn’t know from experience, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi‘s documentary Meru definitely explains why. I draw the line at hiking, so while I’ve summited Mt. Algonquin and Mt. Adams, I’ll never have the confidence or desire to go for Denali or Everest where hand-over-hand scaling, ice picks, or carabiners are involved. I leave that to my friends and enjoy their photos from afar. So to see…

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