SPLITSVILLE
(director/writer: Michael Angelo Covino; screenwriter: Kyle Marvin; cinematographer: Adam Newport-Berra; editor: Sarah Shaw; music: David Wingo, Dabney Morris; cast: Dakota Johnson (Julie), Adria Arjona (Ashley), Kyle Marvin (Carey), Michael Angelo Covino (Paul), Letitia Brookes (Officer Lank), Trent Hall (Crash Driver), O-T Fagbenle (Brent), Gillespie (Jackson), Tyrone Benskin (Dr. Ott), Jessika Mathurin (Keri), Stephen Adekolu (Sutton), David Castaneda (Fede), Nahema Ricci (Antoneta), Nicholas Braun (Matt), Simon Webster (Russ); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Jeff Deutchman, Ro Donnelly, Kate Golding, Kate Gondwe, Ryan Heller, Dakota Johnson, Kyle Marvin; Neon; 2025)
“Silly but robust comedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An unromantic rom/com directed and written by Michael Angelo Covino (“The Climb”) and co-written by one of the main actors, Kyle Marvin. The childhood friends also collaborated on The Climb (2019). This silly but robust comedy is a slight improvement over Covino’s debut film, as its funnier. It’s divided into several chapters, and is filled with sight gags, dick jokes, slapstick routines, an absurd fight scene between the couples and questionable social ethics not for all tastes.
A NYC residing couple, the adventurous sexy life coach Ashley (Adria Arjona) and her easy-going sensitive elementary school gym teacher hubby Carey (Kyle Marvin), are driving on the highway in upstate NY and singing along to a Kenny Loggins song, when she gives hubby a blow job while he’s driving, which causes the car to veer and crash into another a car. She thereby tells him she wants a divorce after a year-long childless marriage, where she confesses to extra-marital affairs.
After police and an ambulance arrive to treat the crash victims, with the driver injured and the passenger dead, the stunned hubby runs through the fields and streams to reach the upscale vacation beach house of his best friend, the haughty real estate office worker, Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and his ceramic artist wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), and their adolescent son Russ (Simon Webster). The kid is in Carey’s gym class.
When Ashley drives to join them, the couples share things about their marriages. The soft-spoken Julie blurts out she’s in an open marriage. This leads to Carey and Julie having sex on arranged days, while Ashley has sex with a variety of men that Carey in an embarrassing way ingratiates himself with, and Paul continues having affairs but his insecurities mount.
Jealousy takes hold of the foursome, and the dopey and insecure middle-aged men spar with each other while things become messy and unpleasant for the unlikable foursome. The question now becomes if either marriage will survive.
It works best as farce, but fails the giggle-test as an earnest work on monogamy. But if laughs are all that matter, you might have a better opinion of the film than the one I had.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 8/25/2025 GRADE: C+
dennisschwartzreviews.com