Splitsville is the most I’ve laughed at a new release in a while. It’s compulsively funny, and often hits explosive heights during its numerous comedic set pieces. There’s a fight between the two of the leads within the first 30 minutes that is so funny that at some point I stopped laughing and just stared at the screen in awe. The jokes aren’t particularly revelatory in content or punchlines, it’s the quality of the filmmaking that makes the comedy work so well.
After their previous collaboration, The Climb, got buried in the midst of Covid, MIchael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have cooked up another story about two longtime friends hitting bump after bump in their relationship. With Covino serving as director, co-writer, star and Marvin as co-writer and star, they’ve taken all of what made The Climb stand out and built on it. Splitsville is a step up in weight class, with impressive scope, ideas, and execution.
The movie starts with one relationship imploding after a freak accident leads to an epiphany for Ashley (Hit Man standout Adria Arjona) and she asks for a divorce from her husband Carey (Marvin). That leads to another implosion as Carey goes to Paul (Covino) and Julie (Dakota Johnson) for emotional support. Ashley and Carey had a traditional marriage and she wanted to get away from there to explore the world, whereas Carey had eyes on kids and family. Julie and Paul, however, blow Carey’s mind when they explain that they have an open relationship and how it benefits both of them and makes their marriage stronger. Whether that’s true or not, it’s enough for Carey to convince Ashley to give it a go in lieu of a breakup.
From there the underlying problems with each pairing come to the fore in hilarious ways. Julie and Paul have trust issues despite the laissez-faire airs they put on. That’s before Paul’s dubious business decisions become a bigger issue. Ashley enjoys her romantic freedom while casting a side-eye as Carey becomes a friend and mentor to her growing list of short-term lovers. All of this to say that the script creatively keeps the foursome entangled as they work through their litany of issues. Most importantly, every combination of characters in this movie is funny. Like, insanely funny. The film is generous with its material, not casting judgements on its characters while also letting them go through their high and low moments.
The cast is great across the board, but for me the star of the film is Covino’s direction and Andrew Newport-Berra’s cinematography. Splitsville was shot on 35mm and it looks incredible. The blocking of scenes is consistently excellent throughout the movie. The film favors nice wide shots that allow scenes to breathe and jokes to ply out in the foreground and background simultaneously. It’s refreshing to see a comedy equally concerned with being visually dynamic as it is with the jokes on the page. Early on Carey and Paul have a fight scene that is pretty spectacular. Most comedies would kill for a scene that good and would spend most of its runtime building up to it. Splitsville gives us that scene in the first act and has other set pieces just as good (if not better) all the way to the end.
The exploration of non-traditional relationships gives the film much of its spark, so it’s the film’s biggest disappointment is that the place where it lands at in the end feels safe, or certainly less anarchic and compelling as the road it takes getting there. The ultimate takeaway for me is that love doesn’t come with parameters. Either you love someone and want to be with them, or with multiple people, or you don’t. We all know that relationships require a certain level of compromise as you grow together and change in the big and subtle ways people change over time. That’s natural, but when you’re forcing yourself or your partner(s) into a specific box, well, that’s just never going to work. Regardless, the movie is so good in every other facet that even a lackluster ending can’t undo the built up good will.
Neon’s blu-ray release of Splitsville is the barest of bare bones sets. I don’t know if that portends a fancier release down the line, but what we have now is a disc with the film, some trailers, and a brief making-of featurette that’s amusing but hardly essential.
