The Climb
Best buddies Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino explore their chaotic friendship in seven single-take chapters.
Till death us do part: Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino and Gayle Rankin
It’s an
uphill struggle for the friendship of Kyle and Mike, who initially fall out
during a cycling trip in the French Alps. When Mike casually mentions that he’s
slept with Kyle’s fiancée Ava (Judith Godrèche), things end in tears. Then,
following a road rage incident, Mike ends up in hospital. Kyle is by his side,
but when Ava comes to visit, Mike makes a pass at her, a kiss she reciprocates.
The wedding is then called off and in the second of seven chapters, Mike is
seen weeping at Ava’s funeral, a mortifying event that reveals Mike to be Ava’s
widower. And so the film moves forward in time as the once overweight Kyle is
now the trim fiancé of Marissa (Gayle Rankin) and Mike a pot-bellied drunk.
The Climb marks the directorial debut of
Michael Angelo Covino, who co-wrote and co-produced the film with his best
friend Kyle Marvin. They play Mike and Kyle, roughly based on exaggerated
versions of themselves. And besides being a bracing insight into male
camaraderie, the film’s septet of chapters are all shot in one take each. It
certainly provides a novel background for this view of betrayal, forgiveness
and co-dependency and has proved an enormous hit at such festivals as Cannes, Telluride
and Sundance.
Quite what
the viewer will make of it all is another matter. The Climb certainly wins Brownie points for originality, but the
overriding artificiality of the concept will divide audiences according to
their taste. Such cult indie hits as Napoleon
Dynamite and Jay and Silent Bob
Strike Back depend on a very specific attitude to the material. And not
everybody adores yeast extract. The main problem with The Climb is with its detachment from identifiable reality and its
moments of contrived surrealism. For good measure, there’s even a couple of
impromptu musical numbers. It’s all very clever – and no doubt Covino and
Marvin had a blast exposing their dirty laundry – but the actual plausibility
of their connection doesn’t always ring true. And, quite frankly, the
obnoxiousness of Mike is no laughing matter.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo
Covino, Gayle Rankin, Talia Balsam, George Wendt, Judith Godrèche, Daniella
Covino, Sondra James.
Dir Michael Angelo Covino, Pro Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
and Noah Lang, Screenplay Michael
Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, Ph Zach
Kuperstein, Pro Des Kaili Corcoran
and Leo Swartz, Ed Sara Shaw, Music Jon Natchez and Martin Mabz, Costumes Callan Stokes.
Topic Studios/Watch this Ready-Sony Pictures.
94 mins. USA. 2019. Rel: 23 October 2020. Cert. 15.