Malcolm & Marie Movie Review

Malcolm & Marie (2021)

Watch Malcolm & Marie on Netflix
Written by: Sam Levinson
Directed by: Sam Levinson
Starring: John David Washington, Zendaya
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A director and his girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and await critics' responses.

Verdict
A neat, though not new, concept. It has it's moments but it's indulgent in a lot of ways, and the length is the worst offender. Performances are sharp, and the dialog often feels real, but I could cut this down to twenty minutes and like it more than the hundred and five it is.
It depends.

Review
This is a bit like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in that it's a couple talking, but this doesn't have the charm. A more recent entry of this sub-genre would be Blue Jay. With Malcolm & Marie, itt's an argument that keeps circling, and while a bit more is revealed each revolution, it's not as dynamic and certainly feels scripted at times when I doubt that was the intention.

Zendaya plays Marie.

Does this need to be filmed in black and white? It seems a bit pretentious given the plot. In conjunction with some of the dialog, it just seems indulgent. Levinson is obviously a movie buff with a lot of references to other movies. At one point this seemingly becomes a platform for Levinson to rage vicariously at critics. Washington does a great job with the monologue, but it didn't feel authentic.

Macolm is a director that's just returned home after his film's screening. He's energetic, but his girlfriend Marie is not. Something's bothering her. Malcolm thanked a lot of people, but not Marie. This is the basis for the rest of the argument. I wasn't sure it could last the length of the movie but it does. This omission becomes a question of what Marie means to Malcolm and her role in his creative process.

The movie unfolds at nearly real time, and the first third has a great flow. It's a great hook, and I wondered where does the movie take the premise. It becomes an argument merry go round. They argue, they relax, and in those quiet moments another thought intrudes, something else they want to say or accuse.

Zendaya and John David Washington play Marie and Malcolm.

As much as I like the concept, this gets long. Malcolm goes on a long rant against a critic. Like the movie it's too long. This feels very pointed, but it does change the course of the argument. Now Marie and Malcolm can unite to hate this faceless critic.

This is a better concept than movie. It had a perfect place to end after Marie's 'thank you' speech to Malcolm, but for some inexplicable reason it keeps going. As much as I liked the first twenty minutes, I didn't get much else from this movie. I could significantly shorten this movie and still get as much out of it, if now more. Are the indulgences of the movie parallel to the director? Malcolm's movie doesn't seem to be of that type. If the decisions made in the film we see tied to the film being discussed, that works, but there isn't a tie. Ultimately there was too little concept for the length.