‘Splitsville’ trailer
Trailer for “Splitsville” with Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Kyle Mavin and Michael Angelo Covino. Now in selected theaters; Wide release 5 September 2025.
Comedy has steadily deteriorated on the big screen. A useful snapshot came in January 2016, when Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” won the best comedy at the Golden Globes. Where did all Lach-Hardop movies go? The “Anchormans”, the “super baths” the “bridesmaids”? They were replaced by dramas with mild comic enlightenment, or dramory with humorous moments that are weighed by heavy themes and social/political overtones. Why can’t there be a film to be funny?
I am happy to be able to report that we can Finally Turn the corner in 2025 while comedies try a comeback. Various films have actually laughed this year, a sound that has long been absent in theaters, such as A24’s “Friendship”, Paramount’s “Naked Gun” reboot and “Freakier Friday van Disney”.
Fortunately we can add another to the list: Neon’s “Splitsville.”
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(LR) Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, Adria Arjona and Dakota Johnson star in the new R-rated comedy “Splitsville.” (Thanks to Neon)
“Splitsville” starts, as the title suggests, with a split. Good -hearted but naive gym teacher Carey (Kyle Marvin) was destroyed by the recognition of his bombwoman Ashley (Adria Arjona) that she not only wants a divorce after just a year or so from marriage, but that she has also been unfaithful. She hesitates to feel how often she is cheated when asked.
Carey is looking for support from his Uber Confident Best Friend Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), whom he and Ashley were on his way to see Paul’s luxurious beach house. Paul and Julie reveal to Carey that they have an open marriage and claim that mutual unfaithfulness keeps their relationship intact. But things unravel quickly after Carey and Julie sleep together, bring Paul into an anger rage and lead to one of the funniest, most well-choreographed fight scenes in the recent memory (yes, it is a “fishing”).
The relationship web also becomes entangled when Carey introduces the open marriage concept to Ashley and brings Carey into an uncomfortable living situation while Ashley shows off lover after lover, all of which becomes friends. And everything comes at the height of the climatic, fear-inducing birthday party of Paul and Julie’s son.
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(LR) Michael Angelo Covino’s Paul, Simon Webster’s Russ and Dakota Johnson’s Julie Face Family Dysfunction in “Splitsville.” (Thanks to Neon)
Covino and Marvin have enormous chemistry, partly because they are creative partners (they produced and wrote “Splitsville”, Covino directed). It is their second collaboration after ‘The Climb’ from the 2020s, their fantastic debut that was unfortunately released to mostly-empty theaters during the peak of Covid.
Translate their talents both from and on the screen. Marvin charms the sweet loser Carey, and he really wears it all; By that I mean by full frontal nudity. In the meantime, Covino balances Paul’s arrogance with moments of vulnerability, especially when his life starts to fall apart.
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Johnson and Arjona can rarely show their comic pork chops, which are maximized in “Splitsville” by Covino and Marvin’s spicy scenario. In particular, Johnson seems to see that she has more fun in this fleshy role (an attentive mother with sexual skills that resentle her husband as he says that he “works” in Manhattan) versus her other roles, most recently in Celine’s decent-rather-Bland “materialists.”
Dakota Johnson plays Julie, a woman in an open marriage, in Neon’s new comedy “Splitsville.” (Thanks to Neon)
However, the scene-stealers go to Ashley’s rotation of One-Night stands and friends, including Nicholas Braun (of “Succession” Roem) as the rigid mentalist Matt and Charlie Gillespie in a Breakout Rol as the Hilarious Wannabe Rocker Jackson.
As he did with “The Climb”, Covino brings artistic flair to comedy with a kind of retro atmosphere (“Splitsville” was finally shot on film). Cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra maintains a number of the crazy energy he had filmed “The Studio” from Apple TV+, especially with his masterful tracking shots. The score of David Wingo and Dabney Morris also stands out as a character in itself.
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Adria Arjona plays Ashley, who starts with “Splitsville” by telling her husband that she wants a divorce and that she has been unfaithful. (Thanks to Neon)
“Splitsville” can serve as a warning story for open relationships that are increasingly changing, but that is not the point of the film. Covino said that on a screening that I attended in Chicago, where he was asked in a Q&A session what his “message” was about the taboo subject.
“We don’t really believe in the concept of messages in films,” Covino told the audience of Windy City. “It is not really the goal of films to give people messages. It is definitely the goal of films to entertain.”
Isn’t that the point of comedy? To entertain, to make people laugh? Even satires have to do that. No wonder we had such a comic drought. Leave the messages for dramas.
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Michael Angelo Covino played, produced, co -written and directed “Splitsville.” (Thanks to Neon)
The verdict:
Now, on the real judgment …
Quality comedies have become a rarity in the past decade, so if someone comes, it must be celebrated. Pure genuine pleasure, “Splitsville” is a fresh screw balravotten that keeps the smile going and cement Covino and Marvin as rising filmmakers and artists cementt to view.
★★★ ½ – See it
“Splitsville” is assessed for for language, sexual content and graphic nudity. Duration: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Now in selected theaters; Wide release 5 September 2025.
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