You might not remember, but in 2020, there was an indie gem called The Climb whose release was weighed down by the pandemic. But in this writer’s humble opinion, it will go down as one of the best comedies of this decade. The duo behind that film, Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, have reunited for Splitsville — a riotous comedy also starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, following two couples whose friendship and marriages are torn apart by crossed lines.

We at FandomWire got the opportunity to speak with Covino (director/writer/star) and Marvin (writer/star) about their latest collaboration, Splitsville, and how they use the camera, choreography, and production design to create a comedy that feels both like a throwback to the past and completely modern.

Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin Talk Splitsville

FandomWire: The comedy genre is not typically known for its cinematography, but in both The Climb and Splitsville, you’ve had some very creative camera work. What excites you about using the camera in such compelling ways?

Michael Angelo Covino: I think that the medium of comedy is so ripe for it. When we’re writing, we’re constantly trying to find ways to visually incorporate perspective and reveal things, and I just think it’s a whole additional layer that is really exciting and fun. And when you go back to the beginning of cinema, and you look at like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, they use the camera in such inventive ways because that’s all they had at their disposal. They didn’t even have dialogue, so because of that, the camera and the blocking and what was in the frame was everything.

So we constantly pose questions to ourselves when we’re writing and when we’re in prep and when we’re filming. How do we simplify this? How do we go back to basics? How do we bring perspective into this? So I think comedy, maybe more than any other genre, is ripe for cinematic visual storytelling.

Kyle Marvin: I will say also, Mike, that in the early 2000s, TV pushed its way into film, and that idea of multi-cam covering of things and that style of comedy pushed in. But before that, even the movies that we were referencing in this all had a really strong perspective, single-camera approach.

FandomWire: Well, you mention that this is a return to form for comedy in that way. And another way in which this is a return to form is that the raunchy comedy — especially the theatrical raunchy comedy — is a lost art. Why do you think Hollywood needs to bring the genre back?

Covino: I don’t think Hollywood’s gonna bring it back. I think filmmakers are gonna bring it back. Hollywood’s just gonna do whatever audiences respond to and filmmakers put in front of them. They might chase it, but at the end of the day, if there’s filmmakers with a bold vision and point of view that want to tell a story, they will break through.

Because if you look at those raunchy comedies that worked from the ‘90s and early 2000s, they all had really strong filmmakers at the helm. They had people with strong points of view who were trying to tell a story in a certain way. And that’s the common denominator.

I don’t think the audiences have changed at all. I don’t think what audiences gravitate toward has changed. I don’t think all of a sudden, overnight, there’s a lost appetite for R-rated comedies or for slapstick humor or for emotionally resonant characters. I just think that they haven’t had it.

Related: Splitsville Review – A Hilarious Sex-Com About Suburban Ennui and Flaccid Communication

FandomWire: I think your slapstick humor is one of the many highlights in this film. Especially for something that’s not an action film, your fight sequences are incredible. The cinematography, the choreography, the production design. How did you become interested in this style?

Covino: Well, we wanted to make an action film, but the budget was too small, so we figured we had to make a comedy.

Marvin: We only got ten minutes of action.

Covino: We could only afford ten minutes of action; the rest of the movie had to be people talking to each other. [He laughs.] No, it felt like a really beautiful hybrid. I mean, again, we’re not doing anything new. The screwball comedies of the past would deal with characters and relationships and emotions in this way. There’s a whole genre of films from Italy in the ‘70s that would deal with this stuff in these really fun ways.

I think the common denominator to all the comedy in this is we’re always trying to find things that have universal appeal or are universally understandable. And I think physical comedy, done well, is universally appealing, and people respond to it. And it’s certainly not beneath us. We find it to be wildly entertaining, especially when it’s combined with emotional resonance.

Marvin: In terms of the production design and all the other elements that go into the film, I think we find all of that to be important parts of storytelling as well. So I think we put a lot of care and have a lot of conversations around how to fill out a space and a scene to make it as full and complete as possible and support what we’re trying to do with the characters.

Photo Philippe Bosse 2024
philippebosse.com

FandomWire: I hope you take this as a compliment, but even beyond the fight scenes, the blocking in your film is fantastic with this almost controlled chaos. It reminded me a lot of Boogie Nights in that way. How did you go about achieving this feeling?

Covino: Each scene and each setup, we’re coming in with a point of view, so we’re not pulling out the camera until we understand what the perspective is and what we’re trying to achieve. And then, it’s about filling the frame and figuring out how to orchestrate action in the frame, and if you can’t, then shifting the frame or limiting the frame.

But truly, it’s just about intentionality and understanding what are all the brushes that we have to paint with and not only choosing very carefully which ones we use but also not discarding them and only painting with one brush. The camera is a brush, the blocking is a brush, the costumes, the colors, and the dialogue — all of it contributes to story and telling story.

So, if we can find ways to continue to tell story on multiple levels, then it inevitably imbues the film with something for everyone to pick up on. And those are the types of films we like watching. So when we’re making one and we have the ability and people are giving us money to make a film, we want to put everything we can into it.

FandomWire: Well, I think there’s a lot of depth in terms of all of what you’re doing with the frame and the action. Some of my favorite moments in the film are like these hidden jokes happening in the background. How did you balance having these without distracting from the main action?

Covino: So we continue to write as we go, and some of those background jokes are actually things we put in during sound mix. We know that there’s space. We have a long shot. We move from here to here, and we go, “Ooh, see that person right there? Let’s give them a line,” and then Kyle and I will write dialogue for the background.

Marvin: I think it’s part of the thing for us — it’s never over until it’s completely over. So for us, it’s always a chance to be creative. It’s always a chance to try and discover and push as much as we can. But I do think that sometimes we go overboard. We sometimes go too far.

Covino: Yeah, for sure. Like, I was at the premiere, and I had, I think, three or four ideas. I was like, “Oh, you know what I could do…” and it was like, “Stop. Turn it off. The movie’s done.” [He laughs.]

Splitsville is now playing in theaters.

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