The 2018 recipient of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Free Solo follows Alex Honnold, as he puts himself in a frankly ludicrous amount of danger to become the first person ever to free solo (for the uninitiated, that’s climbing on his own without a rope) the 3,000ft face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

It’s an outstanding feat of human determination and endurance, but at its core this is a human story, and Honnold proves a fascinating character study. Equal parts intensity and nonchalance (and with an apparent aversion to conventional crockery), he is laser-focused on achieving his goal, but seemingly unable (or perhaps just unwilling) to grapple with the potentially devastating consequences. Instead it is left to his friends and colleagues to shoulder the emotional burden of his super-human ambition.

Throughout the film we get glimpses of the personal toll that Honnold’s quest has exacted. At one point he tells a room full of college students that he makes about the same as mid-level dentist, yet he lives in the back of a transit van. Meanwhile, his long-suffering girlfriend has to content herself with playing second fiddle to a granite monolith; when asked how she might feel were he to plummet to his death, he shrugs it off, “she’ll find someone else”… Who said romance was dead?

While Honnold himself is never fully able to articulate what drives him so do something so bonkers, we get at least part of the answer from the film’s stunning visuals. Even on a small screen the scale and beauty of El Cap is breathtaking. Hats off to the camera crew – all of whom are professional climbers, and many of whom feature in documentary – for their outstanding work. If enforced lockdown has left you hankering for the great outdoors, this might be the film for you. On the other hand, for a nation trapped indoors, any reminder of the awe-inspiring beauty of planet Earth might just be rubbing salt in the wound.