The fragility of life in hostile environments is a phenomenon cinema rarely depicts. It is so unusual that it can almost be witnessed as comedy here. They, first of all, have zero reason to be there at all. So they just go there, everything goes wrong and they freeze to death and then collapse to their doom. It's funny! The way he fell off the mountain. The way the other stripped his clothes off and fell off next. Brolin dying, then waking up with frostbite walking the rest of the way. The mailman having no foresight or sense of self-preservation at all. Gyllenhaal's surfer bro who just lays down and dies practically with a thumbs up. It all feels so surreal and primal. Death is like this, not like in the movies. The film is an anomaly, a blockbuster achievement for how things can go wrong; the way you lose accountability, get lost among groups, everyone working together but mix-ups with the people and the oxygen tanks. A chain effect of it all going south with one small misstep. 'He might as well be on the moon', it really felt like the film was taking us on an alien terrain. Going to see the director's other work to see if this was lightning in a bottle or he really is this good.
Review of Everest
