WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE // A FILM REVIEW OF "THE CLIMB"
There has been a lot of film with male characters in arrested development. Often white, usually privileged and they just can't seem to get it right, or treat anyone right. Somehow, by the end, they kind of get what they were searching for all alone. This kind of film can absolutely work, when you care about the characters and you actually see them have a journey that you feel for. That sadly isn't the case in THE CLIMB, a well-made but pretentious film about two white best friends who are kind of the worst.
Written by and starring Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin (Corvino also directed), the film follows two best friends, named Mike and Kyle, who in the first scene are bike riding though the French countryside. Mike is the more skilled cyclist, while Kyle is definitely struggling. So Mike takes this opportunity to tell his bestie that he's been sleeping with his fiancée Ava (Judith Godrèche), certain that Kyle won't be able to keep up after the anger sets in. Kyle ends up calling off the wedding and we find out that Mike married Ava and some years later, she passes away. Mike's family invite Kyle over for the holidays, arguing that he's family (Even though he ruined Kyle's wedding plans, which oddly no one seems to care about). They eventually rekindle their friendship as Mike is now happy and newly engaged to his high school girlfriend Marissa, who nobody likes (Gayle Rankin, literally the only female character who isn't one dimensional). But Mike hasn't changed and ultimately wants to also destroy this wedding of his so-called best friend. If you're sensing a pattern that Mike is a shitty person, you're not alone.
THE CLIMB really wants to be a deeper experience than it is. But in the end it's simply a well-made, well shot movie about a sociopath and his best friend, the pushover. Neither truly have any "good" character traits and every woman is only there to be a plot device to further their action. Only Marissa has a true personality and even she doesn't really have a character arc. The opening scene has a fun absurdity to it, as does several other moments in the film (many sequences are told in chapters). And it's clear that the writer/actor duo is talented. There's several chuckles and they are both solid performers. But overall, all we are left with is two really unlikable characters, one infuriatingly so, and the world that constantly forgives them, even though they don't deserve it. It's a self-absorbed annoyance empty shell of a film, one that's really not worth the climb at all.
GRADE: D
WRITTEN BY Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin DIRECTED BY Michael Angelo Covino STARRING Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino, Gayle Rankin, Talia Balsam, George Wendt, Daniella Covino, Eden Malyn, Judith Godrèche. Opens Fri, Nov 13th in select theatres. For ticket info: https://tickets.theclimbfilm.com/