The Climb

Kyle (Kyle Marvin) and Mike (Michael Angelo Covino) are lifelong friends on a bike ride through the French Country side. It is along the ride that Mike decides to let Kyle know that he has slept with his fiancé, more than once. What follows is the answer to the age old question of what do you get when you have a bike chase scene, an angry French motorist and a mouthy American whose bark is a hell of a lot less than his bite.

The Climb is in its simplest terms a bromance about two guys and the paths their lives take over a period of a few years. Mike is the cool and arrogant guy who is best summed up as an asshole. While Kyle is that guy who is too nice and lets people take advantage of him. After Mike confessed what his did with Kyle’s fiancé , Mike and that woman got married, fast forward a little time and she has died, which brings back together Mike and Kyle. Things are not going well for Mike and he is falling into a self-destructive spiral all while Kyle looks like he has gotten his life together, even rekindling with a past love in Marissa (Gayle Rankin).  Seeing the place where Mike is at, Kyle invites him on a trip him and Marissa are taking at which point Mike pulls what looks like his usual M.O. and sleeps with Marissa while Kyle sleeps. Eventually that info comes out at Kyle’s bachelor party and after nearly dying Kyle moves on and still marries Marissa. This is all moments in lives of these two and let me assure you it’s a lot more funny than it sounds.

The Climb is surprisingly cinematic for a first feature and is not only beautiful to watch, you are also going to do a pretty fair amount of laughing as well. The film was written by its two stars, with Covino also stepping behind the camera as well. Covino and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein us a series of long one shot takes that are often just incredible to watch as they use them to switch scenes and moments throughout the film. As good as the film looks, it’s the story that makes its hearts beat. Having been written by two real life friends the story has that behind it, which adds a level of truthfulness in its telling. Both Covino and Marvin are golden as they try to navigate through this thing called life. I did not expect to laugh out loud as often as I did, but I rather enjoy a good black comedy and by the time it was all over, The Climb  had climbed up the list as one of my favorite films of the year.