Splitsville

Comedies this formally rigorous don’t come around all that often, so it’s worth celebrating them when they do, and “Splitsville” is as much of a technical marvel as it is a laugh-a-minute-riot. ” Dan Bayer Next Best Picture

Take two best friends and two marriages, shake and serve on the rocks with a garnish of irreconcilable differences.

Meek gym teacher Carey (Kyle Marvin) and his wife, life coach Ashley (Adria Arjona, Irma Vep), are driving to the Hamptons to holiday with their wealthy friends. A gruesome car crash along the way, however, manifests a vibe shift for free-spirited Ashley, who immediately demands a divorce. Carey trudges sadly to the glamorous home of asshole property developer Paul (director Michael Angelo Covino) and wry ceramicist Julie (Dakota Johnson, Materialists), who reveal the chalk-and-cheese secret that has kept them together: an open marriage. Ashley, seeing a new way forward, adopts this idea with way too much gusto, leaving Carey to befriend all the new blokes she brings home. Meanwhile, Julie takes a shine to Carey, as Paul’s crooked financial dealings inspire her to contemplate divorce, too.

Covino and Marvin are real-life besties who previously co-scripted and co-starred in Corvino’s 2019 bromantic comedy The Climb. In this Cannes-selected follow-up, they have a ball trashing a Hamptons mansion in cinema’s silliest, most chaotic fight scene in years. Packed with gutbustingly funny moments, this anarchic but affectionate throwback to golden-age screwball romances announces a comedy duo on the rise.

Rating
CTC
Duration
100 MINS

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