Malcolm & Marie (2021)

Malcolm & Marie is a movie that almost dares you to review it. Its plot centers on a director on the night of his film's premier and at one point he goes into a long rant about a positive review. There is a great deal of animosity directed toward the act of criticism itself, but also not. So much of Malcolm & Marie is about something and then not about it. It is the story of a couple having an argument, an almost real time, bordering on destructive argument that they survive, at least we think they do. And it is glorious.

It's not glorious because watching people fight is fun. In fact Malcolm & Marie is painful for much of it as the fight feels extremely authentic (yes I used that word) often hitting close to home for the viewers being things they have either said or had said to them. Watching two people who love each other, express their pains and frustration, often doing so in hurtful (a generous word sometimes) ways, is hard but extremely satisfying and powerful.

Zendeya and Washington are both extraordinary, the former especially creating an iconic performance. She is electrifying on screen. Her character is so multidimensional the audience has so many ways to interpret her, all of which could be legitimately defended. She is the kind of character you can't pin down or classify. She is the kind of character audiences could discuss for hours. 

Returning to what I said at the beginning I loved how the film manages to be "about" things (as in having the characters discuss topics) and then not being about them as the film manages to sort of then dismiss the topics as just topics and perhaps not the meat of the ideas. The discussions are often really maneuverings the characters make around each other, at each other, into each other. Neither character comes out of this evening unscathed but the film ends with a wonderfully ambiguous resolution that leaves everything in question. For me, and the sorts of questions I love to have films propose, I found this electrically exciting. 

Levinson (who is the son of Barry Levinson) makes beautiful choices in how to film this story from the gorgeous black and white aesthetic to the way he isolates the characters in each frame. His script self-consciously names what he is doing technically with making the film as his has his characters discuss film making techniques. So we think about what we are watching. It's a fascinating choice. So much of Malcolm & Marie gets us to think specifically about what is going on and not be passively watching it.  

For me that is what sold it. Malcolm & Marie grabbed me and wouldn't let me look away, wouldn't let me absolve my responsibility as a viewer. This isn't light viewing, escapism. Perhaps it is the opposite of escapism.

Malcolm & Marie

Starring: John David Washington, Zendeya

Writer/Director: Sam Levinson