Crafting a solid romantic drama is by no means an easy task with the goal of any filmmaker making them, should be to find both different and unique ways in telling their stories, ultimately differentiating themselves from all the countless other ones made. In addition to the films having strong male and female leads who come across as being appealing to the audience, the stories can often take an unusual artistic approach in making them effective. That certainly appears to be the case with Netflix's Malcom & Marie with John David Washington and Zendaya being the films main (And Only) actors in the film with the story itself being filmed in black-and-white. There's been much controversy centered around the films production with its revealing of the story being filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic being surprising, along with criticism being directed towards the age gap of stars. The latter criticism appears to be unwarranted as not only do Washington and Zendaya deliver fantastic performances as the films made leads, but the story itself is impressively filmed with the overall experience being a rollercoaster full of emotions and boiling tensions flaring between the two throughout the films steady 106 minute running time. Given that the film was made under pandemic conditions, the overall experience feels even more grounded and relatable to audiences with the chemistry of the main leads ultimately making the experience a rewarding one.
The plot for Malcom & Marie focuses on a promising young filmmaker and his girlfriend (Both played by John David Washington and Zendaya) returning home from a successful premiere of the film he directed, with them becoming engaged in a huge ongoing fight which reveals multiple serious issues that threaten their relationship. The plot for Malcom & Marie is one that's presented as being basic with it designed to rely heavily on smartly written dialogue, as well as the strength of its main stars to succeed. Despite being a romantic drama, the film plays out as being an unusual experimental piece that's extremely well-acted and shot with the audience growing attached to these characters, along with receiving both perspectives of their argument. The film shows both the toll and expectation that fame can place on relationships, while also emphasizing that popular social stature ultimately doesn't cover up glaring issues that lie within relationships. Malcom & Marie is a film that's simple yet surprises with both its ambition, as well as the effort its main stars put into making it work. The film is tense, raw, funny, romantic, dramatic, emotional, and ultimately clever in how it blends societal themes into its script with issues regarding expectations pertaining to both relationship as well as careers. Malcom & Marie is essentially a film about relationships and how none are immune to the basic trial and tribulations that accompany them. The story is about showing how hard maintaining relationships can be as one climbs up the social latter with the line between love and hate becoming a rather blurred one.
The key aspect of Malcom & Marie that makes it work so well are the fantastic performances of its main leads. Both John David Washington and Zendaya deliver stellar performances here with the foundation of the film resting solely on their remarkably strong yet steamy chemistry. Whereas some viewers take issue with the age gap between the two leads ( Washington being 36, Zendaya being 24), their arguments appear to be misguided ones as the pair is shown to work brilliantly together while simultaneously putting everything out there in terms of showing their range as performers. John David Washington continues demonstrating his range to audiences while assuring them that he's the heir to his father's (Denzel Washington) legacy. Washington is charismatic in his role as young ambitious filmmaker, Malcom Elliott, who see's himself as being the next big filmmaker of great importance after striking it big with his newest film. Malcom is portrayed as being a hungry filmmaker whose on the brink of fame with his breakout film, as he impatiently awaits the critics reviews for his latest one. Washington immerses himself into the role and manages to be completely convincing in playing the part of Malcom with both his characters strengths and weaknesses being put on full display here. The same can be said about Zendaya in her role as his recovering drug-addicted girlfriend Marie with her character feeling a bit shut out of Malcom's newfound fame (He failed to thank her in his appreciation speech at the films premiere). Out of the two, Zendaya impresses more and delivers the stronger performance as a troubled young recovering drug addict, whose life became the basis for Malcom's story essentially, with her character ultimately feeling pushed aside by the latter in exchange for embracing his fame along with being given credit for the films original story. Zendaya brings a great deal of emotion to the table with her character, and plays her role near flawlessly much like Washington does. One of her strongest acting moments in the film includes a scene with her character sitting in a bathtub after chastising Malcom for not thanking her at the premiere with the scenes twist showing the tables reversing with Malcom returning the same kind of low blows to Marie with revelations regarding other women who inspired the main character in the film besides her, ultimately returning the same kind of venom she spewed back in her face. Her characters quiet breakdown in that scene is stunningly subtle as she's slowly brought back to reality with a forceful reminder of her own faults with the other powerful moment being her tearful end monologue to Malcom. She gives a powerhouse performance which easily ranks as being a career-defining role, that's bound to bring her some much warranted recognition come award season with the same also being said about Washington's performance. Both actors manage to display it all performance wise with intensely passionate chemistry. It's simply not possible to imagine the film working as well as it does without their combined talents being properly utilized to maximum effect here. They not only manage to sell the story but portray the commonly down-to-earth couple who have their own share of ups and downs, but choose to stick with each other through thick and thin because what they have is real despite their flaws. If one subtracts the Hollywood subplot from the story, the audience can see themselves in the roles played by Washington and Zendaya with many of their conversations and arguments ringing as being extremely close to home. It can unequivocally be said that without the effort both stars put into this film, it ultimately wouldn't work.
Along with the films superb acting from its main leads, the directing by Sam Levinson proves to be both crafty and steady-handed with him keeping the camera focused on both main leads, while allowing the audience to see their expressions. Shot in 35mm black & white, Levinson and cinematographer Marcella Rev succeed in keeping the visual look of the film engaging for audiences with the editing allowing the story to flow at a natural pace. The characters main monologues are evenly spaced out throughout the film, allowing for quiet moments of reconciliation between the main characters to occur before the fight resumes again. Although some of the back and forth bantering might feel a bit repetitive to audiences with the same point being brought up, it feels believable given that actual couples normally repeat or revisit their old points in a fight to get through to the other person. The films score is carefully utilized throughout the film with the soundtrack consisting of music that ranges from being decades old to present day stuff. What's most interesting about the use of the films songs, is how Levinson frames them at key points in the story with showing the main characters using music to continue communicating with each other when both go silent after fighting. Examples of the films usage of music include James Brown's "Down and Out In New York City," which instantly starts the film off with a bang once Malcom and Marie arrive home from the formers film premiere. Other examples are the inclusion of Dionne Warwick's "Get Rid Of Him" and William Bell's "I Forgot To Be Your Lover," being used to subtle effect when the fighting stops, allowing for the main characters to quietly blow off steam. With Malcom & Marie, director Sam Levinson creates an atmosphere that's visually captivating in regards to maintaining the audiences interest with him allowing the lead actors complete and total freedom to play their parts. His directing efforts prove to be skillful here with his incorporating of the films key songs into the script being both a smart and brilliant move.
The screenplay also written by Levinson is word heavy though smartly written with dialogue that not only feels relatable, but is also poignant as well as thought-provoking. The script incorporates different layers of topics pertaining to mental health, addiction, racism, politics in movies, privilege, insecurity, and the thin line between love and hate. The character of Malcom is portrayed as being a highly-confident filmmaker with a massive ego, who verbally exhausts those closest to him with his loud bantering of pretentious critic reviews his film received such as the one from a white female writer of the LA Times, whose repeatedly referenced in the story. Malcom's character comes across as being more fixated on how people view his films rather than appreciating the positive review in front of him. The character of Marie is shown as being used to Michael's explosive rants about whether people read too much into his films thematically rather than just appreciating the characters and story. Her character is shown to be smoking a cigarette during such outbursts, revealing that she's endured these moments before and just chooses to remain quiet and let Malcom vent his frustrations on her. She also appears to be visibly disappointed that the latter didn't give her acknowledgement for being the main inspiration of the story behind the film with her being even more shocked and hurt with Malcom's revelation, that another woman inspired the main character in his film besides her. Their relationship is presented as being one that constantly puts them on edge with the audience unsure of whether both person's are one fight away from a huge breakup, or whether they'll reconcile by the films end. It's that unpredictability that makes the romance shown in the film to be a compelling, though frustrating one to watch in regards to how both characters interact with each other. The script also tackles issues regarding trying to make it in the film industry as being a person of color with Malcom criticizing the writer of LA times for using her privilege to praise his film as being of greater importance than what it actually is, along with people expecting him to make a societal statement with his film rather than just telling a simple yet effective story. The moments where the audience are given glimpses of Malcom and Marie working well together as a couple, are the moments where they make fun of the LA Times reviewers perspective on Malcoms work with Marie imitating the female caucasian writer, as well as joking that Malcom will leave her to hook up with the reviewer and drive a family Soccer van. Those moments are key ones in showing how well the two do together as a couple when they're not experiencing a major argument, but are able to joke around with each other and turn their life stresses and frustrations into a humerous moment. These moments are significant because it gives the audience not just relief between the scenes with the couple's arguing, but provides hope that the film will end with them realizing that they're ultimately better together rather than apart. The script for Malcom & Marie does a solid job of exploring both the strengths and weaknesses of the main leads relationship. Levinson presents their relationship as being a rocky one with one scene having both coming at each other with knives essentially, that's followed by another in which they become passionate with each other while joking around. The moments where the characters appear emotionally drained from fighting each other are made interesting by the main characters select choice of songs they purposely use to help deliver underlining messages to the other person. The script for Malcom & Marie is one that feels very much alive as well as involved with its characters as Levinson shows neither side to be perfect along with their relationship being a deeply flawed one, but also shows it to be one that's worth salvaging. He also does well with writing dialogue that adds background to the characters, while also brilliantly playing off the real life scenario of Washington and Zendaya being minority actors trying to make it in an industry that's generally considered to be predominantly white with twice as much being expected of them for obvious reasons. The duo manage to put a lot of themselves into their roles and it shows while working beautifully within the context of the story.
As noble and bold as Malcom & Marie's intentions are at bringing something new to the table in regards to being both effective and eye-opening, the film is ultimately not designed to appease everyone and will prompt some audiences to find the characters forceful nature of constantly arguing, along with the films excessive use of profanity to be troubling. They also may feel that the films back and forth rhythm of the main characters fighting may come across as being too repetitive and make the story less engaging and more predictable. The latter couldn't be any further from the truth as the audience is constantly left in anticipation of what happens next after Malcom & Marie complete one intense and prolonged session of their fighting. It helps that the characters have dialogue which qualifies as being both clever and witty for the actors to work off with their chemistry ultimately being the heart and soul of the picture. Whereas the movie has strong writing and brilliant cinematography which gives the film a true artsy feel to it with its black-and-white coloring, it's the performances of both Washington and Zendaya that make this weird experimentation that was boldly conducted under pandemic norms truly impressive with director Levinson keeping their romance steady, as well as steamy, smart, and poignant. Malcom & Marie can best be summed up as being a complexed romantic drama that serves as being a story primarily about expectations, which include the ones that are expected of Malcom as being the new talented filmmaker on the block being hailed in a vein similar to Spike Lee, as well as Marie expecting Malcom to acknowledge her influence on his work, along with questioning why she wasn't chosen as the lead actress for his picture since the film was significantly based on her life. The film is very much a romance about both persons expectations of each other, as well as the ones that people hold for them outside of their bubble. With Malcom & Marie's story, Levinson gives the characters a common ground that audiences can connect with, while showing how much more difficult and strenuous of an effort it takes for young people of color to not only excel in their chosen job profession, but within society as a whole. There's many different layers to the romance presented here that make it standout rather than being just a straight-forward love story. The one presented here is a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and is sure to get audiences engaged, frustrated, and ultimately sympathizing with both sides as the full picture behind their relationships shortcomings become clear. Though within those shortcomings, one can truly see the strength behind Malcom & Marie's relationship which is essentially that they both understand each other in ways nobody else can and are able to tolerate each other at their lowest points, while perfectly connecting under normal terms. For audiences, the film doesn't serve as being a typical romantic drama, which is probably the best thing about it as it'll surprise them with the distinct approach the film takes both visually and storytelling wise. For main leads John David Washington and Zendaya, the overall presentation shows that both performances carry star-making potential with both actors being shown to possess what it takes meet the dramatic requirements of a role to maximum effect. Considering that this film caught everyone by surprise as being one that was made during the national lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, it's a welcomed experience that will ultimately prove to be a richly rewarding one. Malcom & Marie is an unusually satisfying experience that explores the concept of two people being madly in love despite moments where both appear to be toxic for each other, while also showing that their bond is strong under normal conditions. Their love is a combination of both love and hate, and as the film shows, there's a thin line between the two that can ultimately blur together if left unfixed. The film is about the testing of ones relationship and the demarcation of it if both sides are willing to acknowledge their faults and work at it.
Final Verdict: For those looking for a solid romantic drama that's extremely well-acted, written, and directed with a solid message behind it, Malcom & Marie proves to be a must see.
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