Anna Hazelnutt climbs Third Millennium

"No sponsor. Just climbing." The film keeps its word, and that is the review. Anna Hazelnutt climbs Third Millennium, a 5.13d at the Monastery in Colorado that Tommy Caldwell first climbed in 1996, shot by Rob Scrivner with Karly Rager on the belay.

This is for people who want to watch someone move well on hard rock without anyone explaining anything. Eight minutes, no narration to speak of, no brand read. The route opens with some of its hardest moves right off the ground and finishes with a compression problem guarding the chains, and the film shows both. Skip it if you want to know why. There is no reason given for the route, the trip, or the timing.

What works is the discipline of the format. A short send film lives or dies on climbing and camerawork, and here both are the point. Scrivner keeps the frame steady and lets the gastons above the fourth bolt do the talking. What it gets wrong is that the same discipline leaves out Hazelnutt herself. She is a good talker, as her Walk of Life and Madagascar films show, and this one gives her no lines.

Amity Warme climbs Book of Hate is the closest companion: same length, same restraint, a corner instead of a face. Both are honest send films. This one is the purer of the two, and the less memorable.