Actor-director Michael Angelo Covino is a talent to watch: The Climb, his feature debut, is a sharply observed comedy about the friendship between two guys over a long period of time.
The film world premiered tp great acclaim at the 2019 Cannes Film Fest.
Mike (Covino) and Kyle (Kyle Marvin) are best friends who share a close bond–until Mike sleeps with Kyle’s fiancée.
The Climb is about a tumultuous but enduring relationship between two men across years of ups and downs, highs and lows. It is also the story of real-life best friends who turn their profound bond into a probe about the very meaning of friendships.
Mike chooses a steep French mountain as the best place to confess that he’s slept with Kyle’s fiancee. He figures his best friend can process his betrayal in solitude but can’t quite match Mike’s pedal power to take revenge.
Co-writers Covino and Marvin expand their 2018 short into a serio-comedy. The narrative consists of vignettes, often shot in single takes, which reveal the rewards and price of co-dependency.
Containing comic set-pieces–family Christmas, bachelor party, interrupted wedding–with genuine flair, the films shifts gears between slapstick and more serio exmaination of romantic and fraternal relationships, which while threatening to crash and burn, somehow always fins ways to be back on track.
Cast
Michael Angelo Covino as Mike
Kyle Marvin as Kyle
Gayle Rankin as Marissa
Judith Godrèche as Ava
Talia Balsam as Suzi
George Wendt as Jim
Daniella Covino as Dani