Features

The Climb

Michael Angelo Covino
United States 2019
94 min
V'19

Movies and pop songs love to counsel us that “life is a journey”. How about a bicycle ride, climbing up a steep slope? At the start of THE CLIMB, Mike tells his best friend Kyle that he has slept with the latter’s fiancée – and it won’t be the last time that this happens. As the years pass, Mike and Kyle go in different directions, sometimes (sort of) reuniting. As male pals, they are a classic odd couple: Mike is aggressive and reckless, while Kyle is passive and submissive; Mike is “toxic”, but Kyle needs to assert himself more. Spinning around them are the ordinary, inevitable problems of love, death, divorce, family and emotional connection. Combining the comical forms of Pierre Étaix, P.T. Anderson, Luc Moullet and a Mumblecore movie, Covino cleverly stages most of his film in long takes that rove from character to character and from one point in space to another – taking in both the core of a event and its periphery, not only the hysterical, key participants but also the various, bewildered observers. Frequently very funny, well acted and punctuated with several fine musical interludes, this is a buddy-story that deftly veers between cringe-inducing laughter and despair. (Adrian Martin)

On November 5th, in the presence of Michael Angelo CovinoKyle Martin and Emily Korteweg.

Credits
  • Michael Angelo Covino - Mike
  • Kyle Marvin - Kyle
  • Gayle Rankin - Marissa
  • Judith Godrèche - Ava
  • Talia Balsam - Suzi
  • Eden Malyn - Bianca
  • Michael Angelo Covino
  • Kyle Marvin
  • Zach Kuperstein
  • Sara Shaw
  • Martin Mabz
  • Jon Natchez
  • Callan Stokes
Topic Studios

Memento Films International

Thimfilm
DCP
Farbe
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