13 Nov The CLIMB REVIEW

THE CLIMB

dir. by Michael Angelo Covino, starring Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Martin, and Gayle Rankin

The Climb follows two friends and looks into their lives over several years. It’s a clear cut, shining example of what a toxic relationship between two people looks like. One a decent, standup man and all around good person and the other a complete leech of a man who’s actions destroys seemingly everything around him. There is some legit abuser/abusee vibes that are nailed by Covino and Marvin wonderfully here. It’s called The Climb because Michael breaks the news to Kyle that he slept with his fiancée as they’re biking up a steep slope. No spoiler there, that’s in the trailer. How does a friendship recover from that? From that bombshell, the story progresses and how the progression of time is handled is masterfully done. The choices of when to pull us out of the scene before a time jump are brilliantly done, sometimes to comedic effect, and sometimes for intentional frustration.

This movie is directed smoothly by Michael Angelo Covino. There’s great tracking shots, great long takes, the inventiveness of the transition of time; the utter fluidity of this movie is gorgeous. That’s the best word I can think of to describe the directing here: it’s fluid as all hell and it seems like the camera never stops moving unless its to focus on a particular object or interaction but that constant movement is never distracting. It brings us into the scene and keeps us interested in the scene, it lets our eye wander over things happening in the foreground, in the background, it’s immersive at times. Acting wise, Mike and Kyle play their parts excellently, as well as Gayle Rankin who really holds this film down and does a good portion of the heavy lifting. If you love Gayle Rankin in GLOW like I did, you’re going to love her turn here, she’s amazing.

The thing that this movie is lacking, the weakest part of the film, is the good times. That’s what sticks out like a sore thumb in this movie is the fact that we don’t get to see any of the good times that endear Kyle to Michael, that explains the overall nature of their friendship; we see a lot of branches and leaves but we don’t see any of the roots. We’re almost never shown a reason Kyle should have any reason to miss Michael during the time gaps or why Kyle should be so willing to fold Michael into his bosom. Along those same lines, the fact that never once does Michael face any real accountability for his selfishness is a drawback as well. It’s a neverending cycle of abuse with no accountability and that’s shown all throughout this movie. The closest we get to anyone calling out Michael for his actions is Kyle’s mother and that was a fairly feeble attempt. Is this a movie about a dude who can’t not make things about him and refuse to acknowledge his own toxicity or is this a movie about a dude who no matter what will still find forgiveness and welcome his friend back into his life? I’m not sure, I’m guessing it’s a little column A, a little column B.

If you’re down to watch a complicated, messy relationship that is at times maddening and at times absolutely hilarious, The Climb is right up your alley. I’m really glad I took the time to check it out and hopefully you will too.

Review by Darryl Mansel