Tenderness and solitude are at the forefront of this epic tale of male friendship
Against a calm snow-capped vista of the Italian Alps, two friends come together and stand in silence. They don’t need to speak much. They’ve known each other for long enough that words don’t carry the same value. They part ways once again, for how long neither of them knows, to continue finding themselves and hoping that the other will do the same. Amidst these characters’ experiential subtleties, The Eight Mountains, based on the best-selling novel by Paolo Cognetti, unfolds as a (sneakily) epic tale of friendship and discovering one’s natural place in the world, while making a cinematic statement on the fragility of all living things.
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This ‘New York song and dance’ double feature is an obvious duet. On the positive side, both films surprised audiences (and critics) with an abundance of colorful energy, and on the flip side, both films feature male leads with some troubling choices in their personal lives. In any other year, or perhaps ten years ago, these two films would be atop the box office and Oscar predictions, especially the one where Steven Spielberg directs his first musical that is an adaptation of another movie that won Best Picture. This year they’ll both have to settle for being two overflowing-with-life musicals that will become more and more appreciated over time.