New Release Review - Malcolm and Marie

Having begun to adapt to the pandemic, Hollywood has now figured out how to shoot new movies in the middle of it, with Malcolm and Marie being the first. Set in one house with minimal crew and plenty of social distancing, it sends a great message for people who have had their filmmaking desires smashed by COVID, that they can make content without risking infection. As a film…it’s bizarrely average.

So this black-and-white movie focuses on a filmmaker and his former addict girlfriend (John David Washington and Zendaya) who stay in a cool house for the night after the hit premiere of his latest film. Over the night, both of them come into immense conflict, yelling and fighting and testing their relationship to the ultimate limit.

Malcolm and Marie is essentially a reunion of the director and crew of HBO’s Euphoria, making a movie that’s entirely intended for people who admire great acting and design and who will probably proclaim it as a masterpiece from the trailer alone. Shot in black-and-white and featuring two of the hottest stars of the moment, this is the movie of the month, the one crying out for the most attention. But beyond that trailer, it’s definitely not a work of art.

The concept of this movie – two incredibly toxic individuals trapped in a small space together and forced to duke it out – is not new, as Sartre’s No Exit or the wonderful Withnail and I have proven. This movie had a lot of potential for incredible character development and scenarios, but the film continuously repeats the same note of having these two argue and fight, then spend a bit groping each other, then fight, then grope, over and over.

It got to the point where I could honestly no longer tell what they were arguing about, as I was utterly weary of hearing them bicker over and over that I began tuning out.

The only reason these argument scenes work is due to the incredible performances from both Zendaya and John David Washington. Both of them are essentially being told to act like tomorrow is the Rapture, and so every scene has their heart and soul worn on their sleeves. They are hands down the best part of this movie.

But their performances are limited by their character writing. Unlike a movie like Withnail and I, there isn’t a dark comedic edge to these assholes, nor is there a central mystery like No Exit. Both of them are very overwritten and pretentious, in particular with Washington who sounds like the worst kind of Letterboxd reviewer – one who claims to know everything about film, overreacts to criticism and goes on long rants about random things like a spoiled child. Simply watching two incredibly unlikeable people fight it out and coming to a very unsatisfying conclusion isn’t good writing – it fails to interest the audience.

One of the more discussed elements of the movie beside the stars is the writer-director, Sam Levinson. He also created the show Euphoria with Zendaya and so a lot of people are looking to him for some new vision. Here, his direction is fine, but with some drawbacks.

The movie certainly looks really good in black-and-white cinematography (which at this point is frankly more of a marketing ploy to arthouse nerds than a filmmaking tool) and the direction of actors is very strong.

But for some reason, Levinson never tries to make the setting of this one house feel claustrophobic. He utilises gliding camera moves and a heavy use of wide shots, which really negates the intensity of whatever argument is occurring at that moment. In fact, the only moments of claustrophobia I felt were with this movie’s ludicrous number of sex scenes, and that was more because the camera was so tight in I couldn’t tell what was happening.

This film is a bit of a latecomer to the whole Oscar party, with a few people predicting Zendaya’s nomination for Best Actress. While her performance certainly merits it, don’t watch this movie for anything beyond her and Washington essentially giving a really long seminar on acting.

Malcolm and Marie gets a C.

I should also note one bit from the film which in retrospect (and is a bit of a spiler) I find kind of funny. So in one scene, John David Washington reads a review of his film which calls him “the next Spike Lee”, and he throws a tantrum as he believes that the white reviewer is being racially condescending in that review. But then in my mind, I compared him to Spike Lee, and it’s honestly not that hard a comparison;

- Independent African-American filmmaker who funds his own movies

- Rages against current institutions (Spike Lee against film schools using racist movies as teaching tools, Malcolm against review systems)

- Has no temper whatsoever

- Makes a movie exploring a social issue which was immediately acclaimed

- Was profiled by reviewers due to race

- Is a massive asshole in real life (yeah, Spike Lee's a real dick).

It’s hilarious that Malcolm lacks the self-reflection to realise that he is a Spike Lee clone. It’s not a critical note, I just find it funny.

Have you seen this movie? If so, what did you think of it? Leave your answers in the comments below.