The Climb

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 starts off fun, over the top. But it becomes a tedious, boring affair. The characters are so unlikable and such absolute idiots. If the leads had died half way through the film and a completely new movie had started, I would have applauded.

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.

I greatly enjoyed the way "The Climb" was filmed, with its complicated tracking shots and eccentric musical interludes. But I couldn't stand the characters in it and I didn't care at all about their story, so it's a shame so much style was wasted on lame material.

The movie examines the relationship between two buddies and ponders why one of them, Kyle (played by Kyle Marvin), puts up with the other, Mike (played by Michael Angelo Corvino), despite the fact that he is a complete jerk and ruins moment after moment of Kyle's life. The answer to that question, as the movie disingenuously concludes, is that Mike is the only person who knows what's best for Kyle, and though he's been nothing but a toxic presence for the entire length of the film, he's been right all along. Ugh, give me a break.

I don't have any patience at all for the man children Marvin and Corvino bring to life in this movie. Corvino especially, doing his best Casey Affleck impersonation, is intolerable. Clearly we're supposed to find him maybe at times frustrating but overall charming, which justifies woman after woman finding him irresistible even though he's repulsive, and which is why Marvin's doormat character can't tell him to take a flying leap. The problem is that Corvino is never as funny and charming to us as he thinks he is to himself. It's no surprise that he co-wrote the film with Marvin and directs it. Someone with more distance from the character needed to take the reins of this movie if we were to have any sympathy for him.

I actually liked quite a few moments in this movie, but more because of how they were staged than because of what was happening in them. It's a movie full of wasted potential.

Grade: B-

Was looking forward to this based on the plot and reviews. You don't get hugely invested in the characters. It has some good moments but tried pretty hard to be Coen Brothers esque.