Glasgow Film Festival’s Sold-Out Surprise Screening that did not disappoint.
Every year at Glasgow Film Festival, there is one screening which, in the lead up to it, is both terrifying and exhilarating, and that’s the Surprise Screening. It’s terrifying because you could trek all the way into the city centre only for the film to start and have the horrible realisation that it’s a film you don’t want to see, which has happened to me before with Cineworld’s Secret Screenings. Thankfully, at the Glasgow Film Festival, their surprise screenings are always really interesting choices, with previous selections including Promising Young Woman (2020) and The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025). So, going into the sold-out screening, I was excited to see what I would be treated to.
I arrived half an hour before the film was due to start to find a queue stretching up and down the street, although thankfully I got inside with plenty of time and managed to get a great seat. Soon after taking my seat, the head of the festival’s programming, Paul Gallagher, walked out and gave us three clues as to what the film would be. These were that he’d seen it at another festival and laughed a lot, that it was an American film, and that this was its UK premiere. The fun thing about the surprise screening is that it doesn’t even show the usual BBFC certificate (the British Board of Film Classification who watch every film and provide it with its age rating) before the film starts, so you’re left guessing even as the film begins. However, about a minute into the film, after seeing two of the lead actors in the opening scene, I remembered seeing a trailer for the film and breathed easy, knowing it was a film I would happily sit and watch. After a hilariously dark opening scene, the opening titles arrived with the confirmation that we were indeed watching the American dark comedy, Splitsville (2025).
The film stars Kyle Marvin and Adria Arjona as married couple Carey and Ashley, with Ashley wanting a divorce and revealing she has been unfaithful. Due to this, Carey arrives at his best friend Paul’s (Micheal Angelo Covino) house, where the revelation that his marriage to his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson) is an open one leads to all four becoming entangled with and against each other. Whilst it’s quite a high concept, it never really feels like it, as the comedy keeps you in high spirits throughout, meaning you are less focused on whether the plot is logical. The comedy is what makes this film great and seems to take inspiration from all corners of comedy, from the smart jokes of Mel Brooks to the physical comedy of Buster Keaton. Some comedic highlights in the film include a running gag involving a mentalist and a fight which is like a comedic version of John Wick (2014) in that it manages to both make you burst out laughing and wince, expecting death as the action is so extreme that you can’t help but think that a character is going to die. It’s one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a while, and this is the perfect film for a surprise screening, as in the current climate, where many of us stay at home and stream rather than go to the cinema, it can’t be overstated how healing it was to laugh along with a sold-out crowd.
The four leads are excellent and never put a foot wrong, even if at times there are script problems in that Marvin and Covino occasionally seem as though they are in slightly different movies. Carey is so nice that he’s almost like a cartoon character, and Paul at times comes across as bland. However this isn’t always the case, particularly towards the end of the film, where he feels more fully drawn as a character. There is also an issue with the character of Ashley, as she seems to disappear out of the film at times. Her characterisation in the last act, while making sense, isn’t something we can fully believe in as we haven’t seen her as much throughout the film for it to be fully earned . Maybe focusing on her character more and removing some other scenes might have tightened the pacing and helped deliver more payoff for the film’s conclusion.
The film is also divided into sections using title cards, which I wasn’t a fan of, as title cards rarely work. They often take you out of the film and make you aware of how far into it you are, something that ideally shouldn’t cross your mind when watching a good film. It also loses its focus slightly towards the end, and it seems to slow down in its pacing and its ending is rather abrupt, even if it ultimately arrives at the right destination. However, despite this, it has all the twists and turns of a thriller, so it can feel abrupt, but it manages to never stress you out with all the revelations, instead aiming to make you chuckle for nearly two hours, and it succeeds in doing so. Ultimately, it was a great surprise screening thanks to a film which is both high-concept and hilarious, and even if it isn’t perfect, you’ll still leave the cinema smiling.
Image Credit: Splitsville (2025)/IMDb
