The Climb

I actually really enjoyed this & although it was a bit silly in places, there was enough abstract bits & random obscure French & Ukrainian pop music to keep me interested. Great soundtrack.

Saw this at fhe Film Festival Munich 2019 (in German: Film Fest München). An intriguing collection of nice finds, augmenting the at-first-sight downthrodden path of triangle relationships where two men compete for one woman, but there is so much more at that. A parallel topic is male bonding, said to be stronger than between man and wife but even so often falsified, but nevertheless working out surprisingly here in a very original way. We watch a series of separate stories, mostly some time passed in between, each having the same two men as center of attention. Each chapter carries a specific title, foreshadowing what we are going to see as dramatic development(s). For instance, in the first chapter with the title "I'll kill you!" comes to light that one of the men had a sexual relationship with the fiancée of the other one (no fatalities, however, despite the title of this chapter).

That said, I would have preferred that each of the chapters was introduced not only with an intriguing title but also with some context and a time frame. A spoiler-free example of the latter is the start of chapter 2. We obviously attend a funeral, but I was left too much time wondering who and why. Th "who" question is answered implicitly when the funeral leader invites "her husband" to say something. The "why" remains unanswered, and ditto how much time elapsed between chapter 1 and 2. The chapter ends in a very unusual way, when the husband gets into a fight with churchyard personnel around a shovel. Expect more such unexpected turns of events in this movie. This is one of its trademarks.

My feeling that I had to grasp for context happened similarly with subsequent chapters, where new protagonists were thrown on us without telling who-was-who. Nevertheless, the respective stories become clear after some time to get acquainted. Most important aspect of this movie is that the turns of events are unexpected and ample humor is included, contrasting with the also prevalent sadder moments. It all makes up a perfect mix. In other words, just like real-life outside the cinema runs its course, with ups and downs, and for better or for worse.

When ignoring the flaws in storytelling (assuming these flaws are real and not just my fault), watching this movie is a rewarding experience, not the least of the humor-riddled dialogs. Take for instance a "how long" question in the opening chapter, that was answered "still 2 miles", obviously not the assumed answer how long the offending sexual relationship had lasted. And the "I'll kill you!" exclamation was not to be taken literally, as we can see when the front cyclist hits a passing car, triggering its driver to leave the car and tries to attack him. The ranks are closed very fast in their combined effort to contain the angry car driver, and the earlier death threat is forgotten on the spot.

All in all, each of the chapters has its own merits, are well written and treat relevant situations and real people with real attitudes and opinions. The stories are diverse in topic and show different people in different circumstances, sharing our two main protagonists as common denominator. Indeed, their connection and their chemistry remain the central theme throughout the running time. Seeing them go through all these phases and events makes watching this movie a memorable experience.

Michael Angelo Covino's directorial debut is a small indie dramedy about two friends, Mike (whom he plays) and Kyle. They have a lasting friendship and a variety of shared interests including cycling, but things start to get dicey right off the bat in the film's opening chapter when Mike reveals that he's having an affair with Kyle's fiancee. The rest of the film is essentially a bunch of vignettes of their personal, and evolving romantic lives. It's cut in several chapters, most of which have very few takes. While this creates some moderately engaging cinematography within the context of a very low-budget indie dramedy, the rest of the film is sadly rather bland and forgettable.

As leading characters, Kyle and Mike aren't especially all that interesting. Kyle is the more redeeming one, with a more impactful yet still modest home and familial life; whereas Mike's flaws are abundantly clear even well past his affair. While they both are developed, they're not especially that interesting. The chemistry between them on screen is fine, but it's not too engaging. Their characterizations don't feel especially original, much less anything we haven't seen before. It seems that Covino's message is that viewers should understand that even their close friends can make major mistakes and are very flawed, but he doesn't do an especially unique or original job trying to get this point across over the course of the story. While we know that Mike is not trustworthy, the plot doesn't end up really reflecting this in the way it should on how Kyle's personality evolves over the course of the story. The film's down-to-earth script has a few mildly funny moments here and there as well as a more serious side, but the effectiveness of the various situations the characters find themselves in (biking together, a funeral, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, a wedding, and so forth) aren't really made more impactful by the dialogue. The film is paced briskly and edited well, but its formulaic character development and not-completely-engaging plot makes the film's narrative run out of gas a bit before the credits roll. Since the film is a character-driven piece, it doesn't really captivate the viewer at all since we're never especially captivated by the characters or how the writing defines them to be. Overall, this was a fine and passable independent comedy-drama, but it doesn't quite justify the acclaim it received from Sundance back in January. 6/10

The Climb is in some way a pessimistic looking at some friendships, but showing that the most important element in it can be just trustworthiness. Someone's best friend can be a cheater, but when you need him/her you can count on him/her without doubt. It is very refreshing American comedy and for sure you can enjoy in those 94 min with lot a laugh and music. If I may notice, the author adores French songs. Also, it is nice to see a dynamic camera movement and unforgettable is the scene where Kyle is performing a pole dance to the song "Lullaby". It's brilliant!

A pitch-perfect comedy-drama from start to finish, The Climb is a funny, intelligent, organic and touching tale of friendship. Dealing with a sobering yet equally farcical story that lasts over many years, the film is full of honest emotion, and somehow manages to deliver a sprawling story of a lifetime in a very short space of time.

And that's where I want to start, because while there's a lot about The Climb that's really impressive, the way that it feels almost like an epic is incredible. Running for less than 100 minutes, most films would struggle to tell a more contained story, let alone one that spans such a long timeframe.

However, as it moves through the years in impressively organic fashion, The Climb is able to bring a greater scale to its story, and as such brings greater stakes and significance to the table as well. The ups and downs of Mike and Kyle's friendship aren't just a blip in time, but a major part of their entire lives.

Along with the two fantastic lead performances and excellent writing, you really feel like you know these two characters inside out, and though their relationship may be far from perfect as time goes by, you sympathise strongly with both of them from beginning to end.

Another impressive characteristic of The Climb is its minimalist style. It's not obnoxiously minimalist like many mumblecore movies, but it's able to tell a sprawling story of a lifetime without ever following generic tropes of the epic format.

The film is able to pack its story into such a concise runtime because of the way it uses organic dialogue to such great effect throughout. As we jump through time between different vignettes, the screenplay explains what has happened in the last few years or however long with just a couple of words offhand from a character that feels entirely natural to the situation at hand.

There's no clunky exposition or drawn-out narration, but rather succinct and brilliantly organic dialogue that helps what could have been a regularly abrupt series of time shifts flow so nicely.

That structural flow is also helped by the movie's camerawork, which pulls the Birdman trick of using long, long, long takes where the camera flies around the characters for minutes on end without a single cut.

The whole movie isn't a one-shot story like Birdman, but each of its vignettes are more or less made up of a main single shot that lasts for a long time. However, in tandem with its elegant screenplay and flowing structure, that visual style works really nicely, and only adds to the film's brilliantly organic nature.

The screenplay itself is both funny and touching, with humour that made me laugh on a consistent basis, but that never cheapened the real depth and gravity of the story being told here.

The movie looks at the story of a toxic friendship as a sobering farce, with the almost unrelenting nature of Mike's terrible behaviour becoming so bad that it's actually funny. And yet, even when the story seems to be beating you over the head with a rather heavy dose of dark humour, there's a really touching, positive message at its core.

Finishing on a wonderful high note, The Climb proves that you sometimes have to go through the worst of times to end up in the right place, and its sprawling feel makes that resonate all the more strongly. With excellent performances, gorgeous cinematography, an intelligent and funny screenplay and a brilliantly organic style, it's an undeniably captivating movie which always has its heart in the right place.