Splitsville: When the “Perfect” Divorce Meets the Imperfect Open Marriage

Comedy is at its best when it makes you wince, and few filmmakers understand the art of the “cringe” quite like Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. After their breakout hit The Climb took the indie world by storm, the duo returned in late 2025 with Splitsville, a raucous, R-rated exploration of modern love that leaves no boundary uncrossed. Distributed by the tastemakers at NEON, this film isn’t just a comedy about divorce; it’s a chaotic deconstruction of the lengths people will go to avoid being alone.

Starring powerhouse producer-actress Dakota Johnson and the rising star Adria Arjona alongside the creators, Splitsville asks a dangerous question: Can an open marriage survive a closed-minded friend? For the audience on fmovies.tr who enjoy comedies that blend the physical absurdity of the 70s with the sharp, neurotic dialogue of modern indie cinema, this film is a mandatory watch. It is messy, loud, and features a level of graphic nudity that reminds us why the R-rating exists.

The Plot: A Crash Course in Chaos

The story kicks off with a familiar nightmare: the breakup. Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce, shattering the world of her husband, the sweet, good-natured, and entirely unprepared Carey (Kyle Marvin). Carey is the type of man who follows the rules, so when the rules of his marriage evaporate, he goes into a tailspin.

Desperate for ground to stand on, Carey runs to his best friends, Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (Michael Angelo Covino). To the outside world, Julie and Paul are the cool couple. They are sophisticated, relaxed, and seemingly immune to the boredom of monogamy. Their secret? An open marriage. They live by a set of complex, libertine rules that supposedly keep their passion alive and their jealousy at bay.

Crossing the Line

Seeing Carey’s devastation, Julie and Paul welcome him into their fold, offering him a crash course in their lifestyle as a way to “get over” Ashley. However, putting a heartbroken, traditional man into the middle of a high-functioning polyamorous dynamic is like throwing a wrench into a jet engine.

The film’s inciting chaos occurs when Carey, in a misguided attempt to embrace this new freedom, “crosses the line.” Whether through a misunderstanding of boundaries or a desperate bid for connection, Carey’s actions detonate the fragile ecosystem of Julie and Paul’s marriage. Suddenly, the “cool” couple isn’t so cool anymore. Jealousy flares, secrets are weaponized, and the four main characters—including a returning, confused Ashley—find themselves in a tangled web of sex, lies, and physical comedy.

Director’s Vision: The Art of Uncomfortable Laughter

Michael Angelo Covino directs Splitsville with the same bold visual style that defined The Climb. He treats comedy with the visual rigor of a drama.

The Long Take: Covino loves a long, uninterrupted shot. In Splitsville, he uses this technique to trap the audience in the awkwardness. When an argument breaks out at a dinner party or a sexual encounter goes wrong, the camera doesn’t cut away. It lingers. It forces the viewer to sit in the discomfort with the characters, making the eventual release of laughter feel earned and explosive.

Physical Comedy: Despite the intellectual conversations about relationships, the film is deeply physical. Kyle Marvin is a master of using his stature for comedic effect—playing the gentle giant who clumsily destroys the delicate balance of his friends’ lives. The slapstick elements are grounded in reality, making them hit harder. When characters fight in this movie, it looks messy and desperate, not choreographed.

The Cast: A Quartet of Dysfunction

The chemistry between the four leads is the fuel that keeps this engine running.

• Dakota Johnson as Julie: Johnson is in her element here. As a producer on the film, she helped shape the role, and it shows. Julie is dry, witty, and ostensibly in control, but Johnson reveals the cracks in her armor beautifully. She plays the “cool girl” trope only to deconstruct it, showing the anxiety that hides behind the facade of the open marriage.
• Kyle Marvin as Carey: Marvin is the heart of the film. He plays the “sad sack” without ever becoming pathetic. His innocence acts as a mirror to the other characters’ cynicism. When Carey breaks the rules, we forgive him because Marvin imbues him with such genuine confusion and pain.
• Adria Arjona as Ashley: Arjona (Hit Man, Andor) continues her hot streak. Ashley could have been the villain—the wife who leaves—but Arjona plays her with complexity. She isn’t leaving because she hates Carey; she’s leaving because she’s evolving. Her re-entry into the chaos in the third act provides the reality check the group desperately needs.
• Michael Angelo Covino as Paul: Covino plays the architect of his own demise. Paul thinks he is an enlightened modern man, but he is arguably the most insecure of them all. His unraveling is a masterclass in neurotic comedy.
• Supporting Players: The cast is rounded out by funny people like Nicholas Braun (Succession) and O-T Fagbenle, who pop in to highlight just how weird the main group has become.

Critical Review: Modern Love is a Battlefield

Splitsville is a sharp satire of the modern obsession with optimizing happiness. It pokes fun at the idea that we can “hack” relationships with rules and agreements.

The “R” Rating

Make no mistake, this is a hard R. The “graphic nudity” warning is not a marketing gimmick. The film harkens back to the 70s and 80s comedies where nudity was casual and frequent, used not just for titillation but for vulnerability and humor. It strips the characters bare, literally and figuratively. In a cinematic landscape often sanitized by PG-13 constraints, Splitsville feels refreshingly adult and dangerous.

Bromance vs. Romance

At its core, the film shares DNA with Covino and Marvin’s previous work: it is about the intense, sometimes toxic bond of male friendship. Carey runs to Paul, not just Julie. The film argues that male friendships can be just as complicated and heartbreaking as marriages. The breakdown of Paul and Carey’s friendship is treated with the same gravity as the divorce.

Pacing and Script

The script moves at a breakneck pace. The dialogue is overlapping and naturalistic, reminiscent of Robert Altman or the Safdie Brothers, but funny. If there is a critique, it might be that the chaos becomes exhausting by the third act. The characters make such terrible decisions that you might find yourself wanting to shake them. But that is the point—love makes us stupid.

Splitsville is a hilarious, cringeworthy, and surprisingly poignant disaster movie where the disaster is intimacy.

Dakota Johnson and the Covino/Marvin duo have crafted a comedy that feels distinct. It doesn’t rely on pop-culture references that will age poorly; it relies on the timeless comedy of human fallibility. It is a movie about how we hurt the ones we love while trying to find ourselves. If you are going through a breakup, it might be too real. But for everyone else, it is a riotous reminder that maybe, just maybe, traditional monogamy isn’t the craziest option after all.