Offbeat buddy picture champions long-haul friendships
Bay Area cinephiles were no doubt excited by the news that the Landmark Shattuck and Embarcadero theaters are re-opening today (at reduced capacity, and with strict health and safety protocols in place, of course). The chain has long been a showcase for indie film, and film fans can rejoice at returning to a venue for unique and quirky offerings. One of the theater’s grand re-opening films, The Climb, fits that description to a tee, and makes for a terrific first-time back viewing experience.
The Climb premiered way back in May of 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the prestigious Un Certain Regard award, which honors innovative and non-traditional stories. Now, 18 months later, the film is finally getting its public debut, and it was worth the wait. Real life friends Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin use the basis of their 2018 short film of the same name to co-write their first feature. They also both star, and Covino directs. The result is a sometimes puzzling, sometimes sweet, but always funny and true meditation on friendship, love, and what keeps us connected through life’s ups and downs.
The up and down metaphor breezily opens the film, where we find Covino’s Mike choosing a steep French Alps bike ride to tell longtime buddy Kyle that he’s been sleeping with Kyle’s fiancée Ava (Judith Godrèche). What happens next – and how that particular moment both foreshadows and affects other pivotal moments to come – makes for a story that is often both cringe-inducing and unbelievably hilarious at the same time. Giving away too much more of the plot would spoil the fun, but Covino and Marvin have a light and surrealist touch that moves the narrative along at a brisk clip, even as they often challenge viewers to fill in missing gaps themselves. Wry on-screen chapter titles like “Fine” and “Stop It” help give us subtle clues as to where the story is going.
Far from being frustrating, though, the film always holds our attention, since we immediately become invested in all the characters. Covino and Marvin are both outstanding at portraying former teenage friends who move into middle age with a bond that, rather amazingly, survives more than one unforgivable incident. How and why do friendships last, the film asks? And, more importantly, should they? The filmmakers here let you decide.
The supporting cast does exceptional work as well. Gayle Rankin (HBO’s Perry Mason; Glow), as Marissa, a girlfriend of Kyle’s, succeeds at creating a complicated character whose brashness is often misunderstood to such an extent that she is actively disliked, fairly or not. And Talia Balsam, perhaps best known for playing Roger Sterling’s no-nonsense wife in Mad Men (and most recently of Divorce), brings a similar energy to the role of Kyle’s mother. She isn’t above using sly machinations to orchestrate what she perceives to be the best life path for her son. Cheers alum George Wendt is underused in a small role as Kyle’s father, but it’s nice to see him back on screen, and his dry comic sensibility remains intact.
If the film has a weakness, the cycling metaphor may be a tad too heavy handed. References to “cadence” and “keeping going” pepper the film, and bike riding scenes bookend the picture. But the throughline works because we care about the characters so much, and because the picture’s message of endurance, forgiveness, and empathy is indeed worth stressing.
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The Climb opens today at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley and the Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco, and will open later this month at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tomorrow, Sat. Nov. 14th at 1:00pm, the Landmark Embarcadero will be hosting a free virtual conversation with the filmmakers and Judd Apatow. Register here.
