The Climb

Directed by Michael Angelo Covino, The Climb details the friendship between two men (Covino’s Mike and Kyle Marvin’s Kyle) and the trajectory it takes over the course of a few occasionally eventful years. There’s little doubt that The Climb benefits substantially from Covino’s mostly impressive visual sensibilities, as the first-time filmmaker, along with cinematographer Zach Kuperstein, has flooded the proceedings with a number of ambitious and completely captivating long takes – with, especially, the minutes-long shot that opens the picture going a long way towards immediately capturing the viewer’s interest and establishing the off-kilter protagonists and their love/hate dynamic. From there, The Climb segues into an episodic midsection that consists entirely of oddball vignettes and bizarre asides – with the decidedly hit-and-miss bent of this section of the proceedings resulting in a lack of momentum that is distressing, to say the least. It’s clear, then, that the picture benefits substantially from the effectiveness of both Covino and Marvin’s work as the goofy yet entirely affable central characters, with the undeniably compelling bond between Mike and Kyle going a long way towards smoothing over the various deficiencies within the narrative. And although the film does, even at 94 minutes, feel a little on the long side, The Climb closes with a full-circle conclusion that ensures it finishes on as satisfying and engaging a note as one could’ve hoped – which confirms its place as a decent debut that presumably heralds the arrival of a talented new director.

**1/2 out of ****