The Climb(2019)

Submitted by Amy W

Mike (Michael Covino) and Kyle (Kyle Marvin) are best buddies who are the worst for each other – on a near-planetary level. For starters, Mike sleeps with Kyle’s fiancee Ava, then tells him of such during a grueling cycling ascent on a hill in France. After Kyle and Ava break up, Mike marries her, and at her funeral (we never know how she dies), Kyle arrives to confront Mike, but ends up breaking up a fight between his treacherous bro and a union member who won’t let Mike touch the shovel that dug Ava’s grave.

This pattern continues throughout their lives: loud, obnoxious, boorish Mike making yet another mistake, and mild-mannered Kyle bailing him out. Mike’s new fiancee Marissa (Gayle Rankin) is tired of this and wants Kyle for herself, without the baggage of a “best friend” he’s known since high school. At Kyle and Marissa’s wedding, Mike arrives in a drunken haze and objects. Even though he’s told no objections are allowed during the ceremony, he plows on and questions Marissa’s love for Kyle. She then reveals she’s pregnant, sending everyone into a snarkfest. They reluctantly postpone their wedding until after their son Otis is born.

Kyle and Marissa end up getting a divorce, and guess who steps in to pick up the slack? That’s right – not-so-magic Mike, who helps Kyle move out of the house he and his wife once shared. Kyle is currently teaching Otis how to ride a bike without training wheels, and Mike eggs Otis on.

The toxic cycle repeats yet again, this time intergenerationally.