“The Climb” (2020), Michael Angelo Covino’s acerbically funny first feature, opens with two buddies on an uphill bike ride; the outing becomes even more strenuous when one confesses to having slept with the other’s fiancée. “Splitsville,” Covino’s follow-up, again written with his co-star, Kyle Marvin, begins by topping that bit of vehicular-matrimonial mortification.
Married a little more than a year, Ashley (Adria Arjona) and Carey (Marvin) are zipping down a highway, singing along to Kenny Loggins. Soon, Ashley’s desire to experiment sexually while Carey is behind the wheel leads to — well, let’s just say that the credits list more than one stunt driver. Thank goodness for the paramedics, Carey later says, speaking quite strictly for himself. It’s at this juncture that Ashley reveals she wants a divorce. She’s been jotting down her reasons for a while.
The casual cruelty of the film’s humor is not for every taste, nor will “Splitsville” satisfy viewers who demand strict psychological plausibility. But Covino and Marvin continue to forge a distinct comic sensibility — and, what’s rarer these days, they know how to make the camera work for the humor. Their knack for sight gags and staging in depth would shame the makers of the recent “Naked Gun” reboot.
Carey’s next stop — having fled the car, he has to travel by foot and stream — is the vacation home of his best pal, Paul (Covino), and Paul’s wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson). The pair helpfully inform Carey that his divorce from Ashley should be easy, since he has neither money nor children. They also share the secret to their own longevity as a couple: They have an open marriage. Hell, Paul says, he wouldn’t even mind if Julie slept with Carey.
You can probably guess where this is going — but only up to a point. And as Julie, Carey, Paul and Ashley negotiate their particular design for living, their selfishness comes to seem more and more like displaced emotional need. An impressively extended brawl between Paul and Carey manages to be tender and vicious at once: While fighting, the friends take care not to hurt each other too much (“no knives!”), yet nevertheless get wounded with glass and flames — and lay waste to a broad swath of upscale furniture.
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The post ‘Splitsville’ Review: Separation Anxieties appeared first on New York Times.
