When you’re in a depression, you have to climb your way out. You claw with every ounce of your strength to struggle against a general feeling of malaise and lack of self-worth in order to function as an average human being. It’s tough just getting moving again, and sometimes you have to depend on your friend to help you out.
That’s the metaphor of The Climb, a short 6-minute piece about a guy who recently broke up with his girlfriend and is now biking up an extremely steep hill with his friend. With each struggling pedal, Kyle fights his way to the top of life, only to find that not all is as OK as they seem.
This short film slowly morphs into a LaBute-style conversation about the fluidity of relationships and friendships, and how the nature of human drama can life us up, motivate us, and keep us fighting against the forces of nature. Such as a giant fucking hill.
You may not agree with everything said in this 8-minute short – there’s an underlying tension about possession of women that reinforces some ugly patriarchical attitudes – but there’s some real emotional honest in this darkly comedic single-shot conversation.