From Lord Alfred Tennyson’s 1850 poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” the lovelorn often quote (or have quoted to them) “I hold it true, whate’er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all.” Depending on the heartbreak and heartache, an individual might argue against this position because sometimes love is so messy and complex that having never grown entangled with a person may have been the best outcome for all. But that doesn’t make for a good story, let alone a dark comedy, and that’s where filmmaker/co-writer/actor Michael Angelo Covino (The Climb) and co-writer/actor Kyle Marvin (The Climb) come in with their latest project, Splitsville, a tale of two friends and their respective marital issues. While boasting solid performances from the cast and beautiful cinematography that helps ground the amplified themes and plot points, the film’s opening sequence casts a pallor over the whole production that’s hard to shake and the narrative never addresses. If this type of cringe comedy calls to you, Splitsville is now available to own on both digital and physical formats, bringing with it a brief featurette and a few trailers.
L-R: Adria Arjona as Ashley and Kyle Marvin as Carey in SPLITSVILLE. Photo courtesy of NEON.
After a sudden and unexpected near-death experience, married couple Ashley and Carey (Adria Arjona and Marvin, respectively) have an abrupt conversation in which Ashley confesses infidelity and a desire for divorce. Unable to cope, Carey walks away mid-confession, journeying by foot to the home of his best friend Paul (Covino) and Paul’s wife Julie (Dakota Johnson). Taking shelter there, Carey learns that the two have an open marriage, a choice they arrived at together in order to each obtain what they want most as a couple. But this gets tested when Carey and Julie grow closer and end up sleeping together, each discovering that they receive something that neither obtains from their respective partners, past and present.
The following home release review is based on a Blu-ray retail copy provided by DECAL Releasing via Alliance Entertainment.
L: Director/co-writer/actor Michael Angelo Covino on the set of SPLITSVILLE. Photo courtesy of NEON.
Written by Covino and Marvin, Splitsville is a comedic take on love and sex in adult relationships that may make you laugh as frequently as it makes you uncomfortable. This appears to be intentionally with the co-writers and co-stars taking on the brunt of humiliation through the film. By this, I don’t mean the dissolution of Ashley and Carey’s marriage, but the chaos that occurs between life-long friends Carey and Paul as their lives become even more entangled. In a clever bit of show-don’t-tell, Carey’s journey from his vehicle to Paul’s ends when he bursts through a hedge and Julie casually greets him as if his appearance this way is the most normal thing she’s seen. The closeness of the households going further when Carey goes for a shower and Paul enters the bathroom, chats with him a bit, and then insists on checking Carey for ticks. The whole time the camera captures what it sees (so those not used to seeing male genitalia on screen, consider yourself forewarned), but what it tells us is instrumental in understanding the relationship between these two. Specifically, just how close these two men are. This scene tells us, through Covino’s delivery, that doing this check is out of a pure concern while also making it clear that this likely isn’t the first time these two have been so intimate. From here, both male characters become the center point of the film from which everything revolves as their choices create the springboard for all that occurs next — Carey’s engagement in the open marriage of his friends, Paul’s violent reaction to Carey doing so (despite vocalizing how what Julie does doesn’t concern him), and Carey growing affection for Julie, not to mention Ashley’s own sexual growth and the way that Carey ends up accidentally ruining her fun by becoming the person she wanted. This last bit isn’t so much a spoiler as it is an expected plot point given that Ashley blames her sexual inexperience in part for why she wants a divorce, which means this sex comedy needs a moment when the lost love starts to reconsider her choices. The film does center the men a little more, putting the majority of the onus to handle the physical elements and nastier bits of dark comedy in the film on Covino and Marvin, but that doesn’t mean that Arjone (Hit Man) and Johnson (The Peanut Butter Falcon) are left out in the cold being the somewhat unconvincing partners to these two dunderheads. Arjone portrays Ashley as more promiscuous and flighty, making one wonder why the character ever married the introverted and insular Carey to begin with considering Ashley’s internal need for exploration and stimulation. Conversely, Johnson portrays Julie as grounded and intellectually satisfied which doesn’t totally jive with Paul’s more controlling and narcissistic tendencies. In both cases, Casey and Paul seem out of their weight class and that only really gets explored through the Paul/Julie storyline and is never fully interrogated in the Carey/Ashley storyline. At the very least, both Arjone and Johnson get suitable opportunities to not only get dirty like their co-stars, but to demonstrate that their characters are just as screwed up as the main two via substantial arcs.
L-R: Michael Angelo Covino as Paul, Simon Webster as Russ, and Dakota Johnson as Julie in in SPLITSVILLE. Photo courtesy of NEON.
If you’ve seen the film and/or just like to dig in deeper with your home release editions, this one is a bit of a bummer. Comprised of one seven-minute “Making of” featurette, the trailer, and two tv spots (“Guilt” and “Normal”), there’s not a whole lot to really dive into. That said, the featurette does allow the audience to listen to Covino and Marvin discuss the film from the relative perspectives of their roles, producer Emily Korteweg (The Climb) offers his thoughts on the production, we learn about how the stunts were largely performed by the two leads as much as possible, and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra’s (The Last Back Man in San Francisco; Good Fortune) is complimented quite a bit. Newport-Berra’s work is one of the most critical elements of the film considering that the action/comedy/drama is all heightened and his work, beautiful as it is, creates a grounding effect so that nothing goes too wild in the mind of the audience. Covino discusses a bit about shooting on 35 mm film stock and how, tied with Newport-Berra’s work, the film achieves a specific look that is just beautiful to behold — and, frankly, it is. The film itself is beautiful, which is one of the best things about it because there’s a particular aspect that’s so grotesque it may disturbs a viewer’s willingness to find the funny.
**Mild spoilers to follow**
L-R: Actors Adria Arjona and Dakota Johnson on the set of SPLITSVILLE. Photo courtesy of NEON.
The reason why the film grates on this particular reviewer is in its handling of everything past the cold open. Films about terrible people, toxic individuals, and otherwise morally-questionable characters are nothing new for cinema and the film isn’t by any means condoning the behavior of its characters. My issue is the handling of the “near-death experience” and the absence of consequences that followed. When we first meet Ashley and Carey, they’re driving and chatting, Ashley peppering in tidbits to set up their eventual marital demise that Carey’s too love-blind to notice, when she instigates a sex act while he’s driving. It’s humorous in a “that’s not cool” way as the pair seemingly don’t notice how Carey’s dangerously weaving in traffic and it’s that weaving which causes a van to lose control and flip, injuring the driver and killing a passenger. At no point does either character acknowledge their complicity in murdering someone nor does that event see justice done. The intention seems to be to set up the heightened circumstances of the story while establishing the particularly narrow and selfish view of the characters, but it’s hard to find the funny in the quartets’ sexual antics and interpersonal struggles when someone died and no one gives a damn. Instead, the death is used as the reason why Ashley “seizes the day” to read a draft of a letter she’s been writing to Carey about wanting a divorce. None of these people are necessarily good and, quite frankly, deserve the endings they receive, but the impetus never quite left my mind, thus making any of the humor that followed fail to reach the heights it might seek otherwise.
**Mild spoilers over**
L-R: Michael Angelo Covino as Paul, Kyle Marvin as Carey, Adria Arjona as Ashley, and Dakota Johnson as Julie in SPLITSVILLE. Photo courtesy of NEON.
Even if one sets aside the fact that the general premise of The Climb is somewhat similar to Splitsville, the film itself is an entertaining dark rom-com with a cast who gets what the film is trying to do/say with a technical crew that makes the final project appear effortless. One quickly understands that these are terrible people doing things not because they are terrible, but because people just do things terribly (like communicate, regulate, set boundaries, and understand that loving someone isn’t the same as being owed a damn thing). The film works because of all of this, producing not a dull moment in the near two-hour runtime. It’s a shame that what doesn’t work for me clouds all that does.
Splitsville Special Features:
- The Making of Splitsville (7min)
- Trailers and Spots
Available on VOD and digital September 23rd, 2025.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD November 18th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official NEON Splitsville webpage.
Final Score: 2.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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