Malcolm & Marie is An Ambitious (and Flawed) Take on A Couple (and their Egos) Coming to Blows
Malcolm & Marie is, at once, both captivating and exhausting. Produced during the pandemic and filmed at a single location with only two actors, it features strong, bold performances from its leads and a gorgeous black and white cinematography by Marcell Rev, who also collaborated with director Sam Levinson on Assassination Nation and Euphoria. However, it feels like a 25 minute stretched out into a 80 minute feature film- an exercise in excess despite the film’s simple structure.
Malcolm (John David Washington) has returned home with his girlfriend, Marie (Zendaya) after the successful premiere of his new movie. He dances to James Brown, revelling in his success before launching into a tirade against film critics for reading too much into his filmmaking because he’s a Black director. Marie patiently waits for him to finish while she makes him mac and cheese, but there’s resentment festering beneath the surface. She soon brings it up after Malcolm continues to poke her: he had forgotten to thank her, which bridled her, especially because the lead character was seemingly partially based on Marie’s struggles with drug addiction. This sets off an on-again-off-again argument for the rest of the film, where both of them trade barbs with each other. Malcolm, in particular, turns especially…
