I don’t see myself as having a particular fear of heights, but one of the few types of image that – even if staged – can cause me physical nausea are those featuring figures teetering above enormous drops. There is quite a bit of that in this engaging, bewildering, occasionally aimless Netflix documentary. And the best (worst?) is saved for last. The final stunt is best viewed sitting down with a cool liquid nearby to help sooth queasiness.
Jeff Zimbalist’s film, which Netflix picked up at Sundance, goes among the deranged world of rooftopping, a pastime involving the free ascent of tall structures, often without the permission of the owners. We are in the company of the Russian daredevils Vanya Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, initially rivals who end up both romantic and professional partners. They travel to Paris and Bangkok as they plot “one last job” to crown their careers. The Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, not quite completed at time of filming, offers 828m of hitherto unscaled skyscraper ending with a lonely spire poking into the ionosphere. Beerkus and Nikolau plan to close with the sort of acrobatic lift that would seem unwise on even a stepladder.
There are reminders of James Marsh’s great 2008 doc Man on Wire – following Philippe Petit’s similarly illegal journey between the World Trade Center towers – in the scenes leading up to the assault on the Merdeka. It is a similarly crafty operation. The pair made their ascent on the night of the 2022 World Cup final, so ensuring that security staff were diverted. Unlike Marsh, Zimbalist, himself from the rooftopper community, had access to GoPro and drone footage from the ascending pair. The only downside is that the images sometimes seem too implausibly spectacular to believe.
Efforts to tease out the relationship between Beerkus and Nikolau are less successful, sometimes taking on the quality of filler. Inevitably, Beerkus’s family want him to get a nice safe job as a sales rep. The war in Ukraine provides some weight to the background as the two exchange sometimes empty aphorisms. “Our full potential is on the other side of fear,” one says. If you say so. Nobody will walk away from Skywalkers: A Love Story raving about its soap-opera shenanigans. But as an exercise in physical unsettlement it could hardly be bettered.
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Skywalkers: A Love Story is on Netflix from Friday, July 19th
