A pair of influencers climb the world’s tallest buildings for clicks in Netflix’s strangely hollow documentary. Here’s our Skywalkers: A Love Story review.
At first glance, the story of “skywalkers” Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus seems tailor-made for the documentary form.
Growing up in the Moscow rooftopping scene, the pair have turned their passion for climbing the world’s tallest buildings into a thriving business. With a combination of brand partnerships, photography skills and a canny understanding of social media, they’ve become probably the world’s highest-altitude influencers. The footage both they and co-directors Maria Bukhonina and Jeff Zimbalist have captured from atop the urban jungles is undeniably cinematic.
Nikolau and Beerkus are also in love. The most emotionally charged moment in the film comes as the duo are plotting their most daring stunt yet: climbing Malaysia’s Merdeka 118 super-skyscraper, then still under construction. As the stakes of what they’re attempting become increasingly clear, the pair have been at each other’s throats for days. In the middle of an argument, Beerkus asks the crew to stop filming – the only time either party acknowledges the camera’s presence across the documentary’s 100-minute runtime.
This proves to be a far bigger problem than it sounds. By following a pair of influencers, Skywalkers already has a slightly manufactured sheen to it. With everyone on camera for the most part ignoring the documentary makers tracking their every move, what is a genuinely incredibly dangerous activity just feels fake. The views from the top of skyscrapers might be stunning, but the climbs to get their lack the authenticity to really get the blood pumping.
Contrast this with last year’s The Deepest Breath – also a Netflix Original production – and Skywalkers just doesn’t have the real sense of danger that made Laura McGann’s doc so thrilling. There’s less attempt here, too, to understand the motivations Nikolau and Beerkus have for risking their lives on a regular basis. Instead, they spend much of the film telling us how dangerous their activities are, when their actions really should speak for themselves.
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The result is a film which sadly feels more annoying than exciting. The sense of inauthenticity throughout can’t help but leave something of a vapid taste in the mouth. More than a film about daredevils, this feels like a film about influencers. Maybe it’s appropriate, then, that Skywalkers seems so uninterested in the real lives of its subjects. The film promised beautiful people on tall buildings, and it delivered – but a dazzling surface can’t make up for a curiously empty interior.
Just follow the subjects on Instagram; the end result won’t be that dissimilar.
Skywalkers: A Love Story is on Netflix from 19th July.
