The Climb

Fresh, funny, realistic. Any movie-lover would like this in my opinion.

Just a really well made film about life and friendship that has great writing, cinematography, performances and characters that have a lot of heart and leave an impression on you. great moobie

Some friendships are quite special. Exhausting and terrible at times, but have worked for so many years that they may have developed a dangerous situation that both individuals may not be able to escape from ... but why would they want to you may ask? Is a great friend not everything you can ask for? Maybe and maybe not is the answer, I reckon. In this case it is not just about friends, it is about what they do to each other and relationships outside their own one. Like with a life partner - not going to say they should share everything ... do not even think that. But you will see through family dysfunction and other oddities ... a low budget movie that can be quite engaging if you let it. Especially if you really roll with the flow of it and with the characters ... no matter how flawed they are .... and a movie that sort of almost ends like it begins ... with one friend not being able to control his emotions and ... well you'll see how others react to that! Not holding back "punches" - as I am not holding back on puns!

Okay! Of course I am not a professional reviewer of movies but come on. Why would this movie be more than a 5/10? The areas they said were funny was stupid and as a matter of fact, so stupid they did make you laugh a little. First off, who marries a women that sleeps with their best friend and continued to do so or at least wanted to post discovery. Makes no sense and why would marry her anyway? Also, how did the first fiancee die by the way? I guess the reviewers thought leaving details out of the immediate scenes were unique but I call it lazy. I guess at least they tried something different but this movie was uneven all over and should never be called a good movie.

I was expecting the usual indie film, lacking in execution and with a sloppy and forgettable story. I was instead very surprised, as it has many inventive ideas and the script is well written. It is splitted in 7 parts and each chapter is like a long uninterrupted shot, with very few cuts in the middle. This make the story flow very nicely. The friendship between Mike and Kyle will be tested a lot, but they always manage to reconcile, no matter what. The title of this movie is just perfect. For the whole time I had the feeling that this relation is a really difficult climb on a hill that will never end, and eventually finish where the two friends will just give up on each other. In the end things will be fixed, and finally we see the descent. This small indie project does not have a big budget, nor important names casting on it, however it delivers a nice story and a thoughtful narrative. There are here and there some sequences that are just a little bit too long and boring, but it is just one hour and a half long, so honestly not a big deal and I wouldn't cut anything out. Among all these independent films, this is surprisingly good: characters are deepen, and you can easily bound with the two protagonists, it has a some good funny moments and overall is a simple and enjoyable movie. I personally recommend it, especially if you are searching for a light-hearted watch.

Michael Angelo Covino's The Climb is intricate in its simplicity; it opens on a long stretch of time where, at a glance, little happens outside of two cyclists having a conversation. But the camera never cuts away, the actors don't miss a single beat, and the emotions grow tenser and tenser as a revelation is made and other parts of the film's universe begin to interact with their uninterrupted ride. Lengthy takes are not inherently an impressive feature, of course. I often argue that artists like Harmony Korine and Matthew Barney might fancy themselves worthy of Jodorowsky, Buñuel, or Brakhage just because they emulate the "weirdness", not realizing that those filmmakers translated legitimate ideas into eccentric surrealism and didn't just hope surrealism by itself would eventually "say something" (more on that in a future post). Similarly, someone like Gus Van Zant may have thought he was the next Tarkovsky, Kubrick, or Tarr because he made a really dang slow movie once. The Climb is hardly so thoughtless. One of many 2019 films that I missed for my end-of-the-year retrospective, its delayed wide release allows me to cheat a little and praise it as one of the 2020 greats. Of course, COVID was unkind enough to the film as it is, but the fact that Googling the title mainly yields results for a Miley Cyrus song is the cherry on top - originality is harder and harder to find. We meet Kyle and Mike (writer Kyle Marvin; writer-director Covino) and watch as their once-tight friendship begins to change upon the discovery that one has been sleeping with the other's fiancee. There are several uninterrupted scenes like the one I described above; lengthy takes where things subtly escalate, as the characters grow more uncomfortable (as do the eventual extras) and the camera shifts its perspective in meticulous but not excessively noticeable ways. There is a particularly uncomfortable party scene where there are even more moving cogs and ongoing subplots (many involving a superb Gayle Rankin as "the new girlfriend"), yet everything within the take is still flawlessly coordinated - even the family dog is on cue! I adored this movie the way I did last year's Climax, but that one managed to descend all the way to madness while still being well-choreographed. "Uncomfortable" is a good word - the film is a prime example of both cringe comedy (Boy, does it get darkly humourous at points!) and just plain awkwardness. The story is well-told and keeps you guessing as to what will go wrong next, who will get cut, by whom, and how deep. The writing, grooming, costuming, and acting do wonders to let us know a substantial amount of time has passed between two given scenes; we can see these people are barely who they used to be. Without giving too much away, I will say that The Climb is quite an ironic title (then again, a climb doesn't strictly need to involve "going up"). You will find yourself in the pits if you watch it, but you will almost certainly admire the experience on a technical level - subdued as it may look next to a Hollywood spectacle or in-your-face buddy comedy. This isn't just about two friends; it's about friendship, and the things we must question about the connections we find. But on the other hand, if reducing the film to "bros vs. hoes and also there's alcohol" ensures more people will see it... Is the top result still the Miley song? When talking about the World War I drama 1917, some critics have cited The Climb as a superior example of shooting impressively long takes, not only because 1917 used VFX to conceal its cuts and so maintain the "single take" illusion. While I enjoyed 1917, which is more epic in scale and would've been impossible to nail in one go, few things compare to the real deal.

IF 2 straight men Could be a couple these guys should be . real life is messy and this is no exception . this film shows a friendship more serious than some marriages. 1 man everyone loves the other is like that relative that doesn't usually get invited to parties and everyone knows why but together they show us what best friends are.

If you enjoy movies that are dull and boring you should definitely watch this one. It was mostly fast forwarding for me, I have to admit. And I'm not too picky. I picked up the story and it kind of was OK, but then again your own life could be just as exciting or dull, so better find something more engaging too watch.

I greatly enjoyed the way "The Climb" was filmed, with its complicated tracking shots and eccentric musical interludes. But I couldn't stand the characters in it and I didn't care at all about their story, so it's a shame so much style was wasted on lame material. The movie examines the relationship between two buddies and ponders why one of them, Kyle (played by Kyle Marvin), puts up with the other, Mike (played by Michael Angelo Corvino), despite the fact that he is a complete jerk and ruins moment after moment of Kyle's life. The answer to that question, as the movie disingenuously concludes, is that Mike is the only person who knows what's best for Kyle, and though he's been nothing but a toxic presence for the entire length of the film, he's been right all along. Ugh, give me a break. I don't have any patience at all for the man children Marvin and Corvino bring to life in this movie. Corvino especially, doing his best Casey Affleck impersonation, is intolerable. Clearly we're supposed to find him maybe at times frustrating but overall charming, which justifies woman after woman finding him irresistible even though he's repulsive, and which is why Marvin's doormat character can't tell him to take a flying leap. The problem is that Corvino is never as funny and charming to us as he thinks he is to himself. It's no surprise that he co-wrote the film with Marvin and directs it. Someone with more distance from the character needed to take the reins of this movie if we were to have any sympathy for him. I actually liked quite a few moments in this movie, but more because of how they were staged than because of what was happening in them. It's a movie full of wasted potential. Grade: B-

There were some genuine good funny bits but to be honest if you have seen the trailer you have seen the best bits without all the long lingering boring bits. Like them standing smoking for about 5min with nothing happening. You were waiting for something to happen but it didn't and that seemed to be the theme of the movie. Could have been good but very slooooooow ..... so slow we eventually gave in and turned it off