In the opening scene of Michael Angelo Covino’s 2020 friendship dramedy “The Climb,” Kyle Marvin’s character, Kyle, has his relationship implode during an arduous journey — on bicycles — when his best friend Mike (Covino) confesses that he slept with Kyle’s fiancee. Covino’s follow-up to “The Climb,” the comedic marriage farce “Splitsville,” opens with Marvin’s character, Carey, seeing his relationship implode during another journey — by car — when his new wife Ashley (Adria Arjona) announces she wants a divorce.

Both trips start out as joyous adventures before turning suddenly harrowing, emotionally and physically, but in “Splitsville,” the comedy is bigger and broader, the scope larger. It’s an appropriate heightening for the sophomore feature from the creative team of Covino and Marvin, who co-wrote and co-star in both “The Climb” and “Splitsville,” with Covino directing.

“Splitsville” cements the filmmaking duo as the heirs apparent to Paul Mazursky, the New Hollywood bard of marriage, divorce and everything in between. The story of two couples experimenting with extramarital sexual relationships to varying degrees of success, “Splitsville” is their version of Mazursky’s 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” a “Carey & Ashley & Paul & Julie” for the sexual politics of 2025, which are just as convoluted and perhaps not as evolved as the concerned parties would like to believe.

When Ashley (Adria Arjona) dumps Carey and he flees their vehicle on foot, he seeks solace with his best friend Paul (Covino) and Paul’s wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), and is floored to discover that they’ve opened their marriage. Paul and Julie “make the bad thing not bad,” as they smugly declare, and seem utterly at peace with it.

Of course, things are never as easy as they seem, from Paul and Julie’s oh-so-modern approach to sex and marriage, to their luxe lifestyle of modernist beach homes and her vanity ceramics hobby. Carey, a golden retriever of a man filled with trusting enthusiasm, bumbles right into trouble with their open relationship, and finds himself just trying to keep up — with the dramatic roller coaster that Paul and Julie’s marriage reveals itself to be, and Ashley’s rotating roster of new, exciting boyfriends that Carey ends up taking under his wing. This all might seem exciting and fresh, but Carey just wants a traditional marriage: monogamy, commitment, kids. Is that too much to ask in this day and age?

Covino’s filmmaking is tremendously appealing, buoyant and playful, and in “Splitsville,” he dials everything up from “The Climb,” especially the comedy. “The Climb” had a more melancholy tone, about the ups and downs of a friendship set over the course of many years, and “Splitsville” is a lot sillier, while still tackling serious marital issues. Covino deploys some of his favorite tricks, like observing domestic chaos or bliss from the outside looking in (or reverse), and characters performing unexpected songs in order to win over a lover.

He favors dazzling long takes, sharply punctuated with violence and humor, expertly lensed by cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra, who was also behind the camera for the dizzyingly long oners of Apple TV’s “The Studio.” Covino juxtaposes the action with retro musical cues that bop from classic rock to global funk, creating an infectiously charming world that you just want to live inside, despite the emotional turbulence.

As actors, Covino and Marvin are also a study in contrasts. Covino is brooding and intense as the obsessive, jealous Paul, Marvin sunny and upbeat as Carey, who catches every curveball tossed his way. Both “The Climb” and “Splitsville” are two-handers (well, a four-hander with Johnson and Arjona), but this one feels like it’s Marvin’s movie as Carey becomes the unwitting center of this melee.

Covino’s facility with his ensemble is to draw out their inherent screen qualities, from Marvin’s ebullience, to Arjona’s energetic feistiness, to Johnson’s unflappable cool. Every actor works within a range that’s believable to them as performers, even Covino’s hangdog shiftiness as Paul, and Covino, as director, doesn’t push them outside of their comfort zone. He puts it all to excellent use in scrambling who wants what and why and when, so that it’s never obvious how this all will shake out in the end.

After all the hilarious, sad, sexy madness that Covino and Marvin unspool in “Splitsville,” any combination of where these lovers land would be a bit of a disappointment. You may throw a sidelong glance at who ends up with whom in the end, but nothing’s perfect after all, not even “Splitsville,” though it comes damn near close.

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'SPLITSVILLE'

3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity)

Running time: 1:40

How to watch: In limited theatrical release Aug. 22, wide release Sept. 5

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