Hanging by a Wire deserves the Fall branding more than Fall 2: Deadpoint.

The latter is a cautionary tale in how “the how” is as important to art as “the what” (the lessfallutin way to phrase it is that execution matters as much as premise). While the simplicity of the original Fall’s pitch is a part of its “making a lot out of so little” appeal, its success was as predicated on how the cinematography visually immerses your fear in their harrowing. Fall 2’s inability to match clarifies — through juxtaposition — why the first actually worked; note how rarely and ineptly Deadpoint captures and conveys the height of their surroundings.  

But now, we must enter into “am I a dinosaur?” territory. While Fall surely utilizes visual effects amidst the practical, it still manages to sufficiently convince me that what I’m looking at is real enough, key to my immersive dread. But Fall 2 makes it impossible to forget that you’re staring at digital fakery. 

Is it possible to design and frame 1s and 0s to be kinetically affecting? Obvs. 

But you know what’s also cool, and arguably more-reliably cooler?

The real world. 

Paging: the crowd shots and landscapes in The Uprising. And then for some reason setting papers on fire in a basket requires VFX?!

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I’ve already mentioned how varying aspect ratios could become the recognizable hallmark of 2020s cinema. So while we’re on the topic of computers…

(AI?) projections replacing practical set features could become the hallmark of 2020s Broadway.

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Hanging by a Wire is in the Free Solo camp of documentaries that make you wish for some IMAX screenings.