Another British bouldering film?  I know we’ve been doing a lot of these recently, but there are many, and more topically, this one went on YouTube in full recently (foolish me for fighting to get a DVD copy!)

Life on Hold showcases proper hard bouldering in the UK, and it delivers right off the bat with an opening shot that frames the iconic Careless Torque, and from there it doesn’t stop, or even slow down.  There’s no voiceover, no exposition, no over-arching narrative, and at most a sentence or two of interview musing every now and then.  With the chaff stripped away, it packs in a new boulder problem every 2 minutes on average.  Those problems span from hard yet uninspiring drop-offs, to test-pieces like Cipher and Voyager, to ropeless attempts on James Pearson’s The Promise.

Outside the occasional drop-off problem, they picked real plums to showcase – tall powerful lines largely, with the odd super delicate friction slab mixed in.  As someone who professes to love proud lines over sketch landings, some of the desperate positions and off-kilter falls are the stuff of my nightmares, but mercifully there’s no resulting carnage.  The footage of Sampson, The Promise, The Prow, and Return of the Jedi will have even the most hardened palms sweating.

Technically, its an interesting film; close-ups of terrible holds appear to enhance the experience, and for a smaller production company they do an excellent job staying away from boring, single angle static shots.  Multiple camera angles and movingtracking shots are employed to great effect most of the time, the occasional handicam motion-sickness notwithstanding. The audio is crisp, for better or worse, highlighting the grind of rubber and skin on stone, and also highlighting road noise, sirens, and film camera shutters. When ambient noise isn’t there, the consistently mellow soundtrack is present in full force – it’s not my preferred genre, but I won’t let my tastes impinge here, and it generally suits the vibe of the film. The only thing that strikes me slightly odd were some of the choices in ordering the segments shown.  There are some great, high-tension highball shots mid-film that seem like they would have made an excellent addition to the final crescendo. 

Verdict: Watch it – Overall, its excellent bouldering flick, with ample footage of important British lines, over a dozen athletes, hard moves, and some pucker inducing falls. 

Ned Feehally

David Mason

Dan Varian

Michele Caminati

Jon Partridge

Micky Page

Martin Smith

Ryan Pasquill

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk

Katy Whittaker

Chris Webb-Parsons

Shauna Coxey

Alex Puccio