Malcolm & Marie Review

The Pandemic has changed the way we all operate. It forced Sam Levinson to write Malcolm and Marie within 6 days and then was subsequently shot over 14 days using minimal crew and creating a Covid safe work environment.

It pulls no punches and instantly establishes that both Malcolm and Marie have unresolved feelings and tension that has been mounting through out their public relationship. Malcolm has just had the film premiere of his life where people were praising him and giving him all the accolades and up and comer deserves. We learn through power house dialogue that Marie is mad because he thanked almost everyone but her that evening for their contribution to the film.

As they begin to trade hurtful words, we begin to really see the talents of the two actors hired to play the only two characters that exist in this film. Malcolm and Marie. This is not billed as a love story and that is not some cheesy line scribbled into the trailer to make you think its just not a typical movie. It really is not a love story. It is two people so broken down they cannot see how fragile their world is without one another there.

Zendaya and John David Washington both pour their souls out for the world to see. As Zendaya dives deep into Marie's past struggles with addiction she calls into question Malcolm and his narcissism to base the film on her and not even give her credit. This is where Washington is able to shine, warning her that the words he is about to choose and then deliberately say are going to hurt her so bad she cannot win this argument.

It is definitely not a love story. It's not a hate story either. To classify this film as either would be a foolish endeavor by anyone. What it is is a merely a moment with these people where they are tired of bottling in the anger, the sadness, the mental fragility and instead of going to bed they have it out for most of the night, allowing the two characters to display their anger through the one way film hardly uses anymore to convey its point. Words. Sometimes that is all we have to say everything we need to say. Twisting word knives just to know your partner still feels that pain is not healthy. Zendaya and John David Washington show us that. If you are in a long term relationship and this movie did not make you uncomfortable at least 10 times then you likely did not pay attention from the beginning and wanted something more than just a dialogue driven film centered around two very talented individuals.

This is the type of film that would have been queued up prior to the pandemic on release date. It's a showcase for the brilliant stars even if some of the long winded soliloquies became pretentious and long winded. All of it is by design. The incessant talk about how mystery is good while keeping every aspect of their life hidden away except for this one brief encounter with these two. This movie does not definitively paint one of the two as right or wrong. That's entirely up to the viewers to insert their own study of these two and figure out how they feel about it.

Rating- 9.5/10- Zendaya showed in one scene how powerful one can be. That scene is when she explained to Malcolm she would have been a more authentic lead before grabbing a knife and making us question for one second whether or not it was an act. That was true power, that was when this movie solidified itself as needed viewing as well as solidified itself as something I know not everyone will see the same way.