Sundance review: Friendship turns toxic in 'The Climb,' a sharp and hilarious comedy

“The Climb”

★★★★

Playing in the Spotlight program of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 98 minutes.

Screens again: Saturday, Jan. 25, 3 p.m., Rose Wagner (Salt Lake City); Sunday, Jan. 26, 6:30 p.m., The Ray (Park City); Saturday, Feb. 1, 6 p.m., PC Library (Park City).

The Jan. 26 screening will be simultaneously shown, with the Q&A, at 10 theaters nationwide (tickets on sale here):

 • Bow Tie Cinemas Harbour 9, Annapolis, Md.

 • Cedar Lee Theatre, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

 • Cinema Arts Theatre, Fairfax, Va.

 • Harkins Theatres Tempe Marketplace 16, Tempe, Ariz.

 • Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinema, Cambridge, Mass.

 • Landmark’s Keystone Art Cinema, Indianapolis, Ind.

 • Landmark’s Lagoon Cinema, Minneapolis, Minn.

 • Landmark’s Ritz Five, Philadelphia, Pa.

 • Prado Stadium 12, Bonita Springs, Fla.

 • Sun-Ray Cinema, Jacksonville, Fla.

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Michael Angelo Covino’s quietly devastating comedy “The Climb” is a hilarious and lacerating look at what happens when your best friend is also your — and his own — worst enemy.

Covino and his real-life best pal Kyle Marvin wrote the film, and play longtime best friends Mike and Kyle, who we meet while on a long bike ride in the French countryside. Kyle is enthusiastic about his upcoming marriage to Ava (Judith Godrèche), but in the middle of the ride, Mike delivers some bad news: Mike slept with Ava. It was before Kyle and Ava started dating, Mike says — but then he adds “it also happened in the present.”

Kyle, struggling to catch up to Mike on his bike, yells, “if I catch you, I’m going to kill you!” Mike replies, “I know. That’s why I waited for the hill.” Kyle tells Mike he won’t be Kyle’s best man — even though Mike has already written his speech.

The entire bike ride, and the fight with a motorist that follows, is all captured in one fluid take — a real one, not a phony “1917” job. Covino and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein do this neat trick over and over again throughout the film, each long segment carefully choreographed to take in all the action but feeling spontaneous and improvised.

One scene takes place in a hospital. Another is at a funeral. Still another is at a Christmas party with Kyle’s parents (Talia Balsam and George Wendt), where we meet Marissa, a high-school flame who re-entered Kyle’s life after his relationship with Ava fell apart. 

Each time, Mike is there, simultaneously maintaining his friendship and sabotaging Kyle’s life. It’s not that Mike is intentionally cruel or spiteful. It’s just that he’s so screwed up, so full of self-loathing, that his internalized toxicity spreads to everyone else — and since Kyle is his best friend, Kyle gets the strongest dose of that poisonous attitude.

Covino and Marvin — who co-wrote this comedy, adapting their short film of the same name — display a flip, easygoing chemistry of two guys who have known each other for ages, and their back-and-forth banter produces laughs in the most mundane of exchanges. Adding a tart counterpoint to the pair is Rankin, who brings out the best,  by which I mean the worst, out of both guys.

“The Climb” is one of those comedies that so feels so effortless, like a natural progression of events, that it’s easy to overlook how much intelligence and craft that went into it. Covino and Marvin demonstrate that they could be the next great movie comedy team, if they’re willing to keep climbing.