For someone that watches tons of films I did not expect is that Malcolm & Marie was going to be the most controversial film since Joker. My reason why is that they both are both super amazing at imitating other great filmmakers while failing to say anything at all. 

Malcolm & Marie is a new Netflix film, directed by Sam Levinson (director of Assassination Nation and Eurphoia). It stars Zendaya and John David Washington. The film is about a couple who has a big fight. It was filmed in the middle of the pandemic, which is cool.  It has some amazing cinematography, and the performances from Zendaya and John David Washington are both outstanding. The music is smooth and inviting. Who does not like Jazz? That is all the good I have to say about it. Malcolm & Marie reads mostly like a play rather than a film, which is not a bad thing. You get amazing performances, but I believe there is a huge gap between the viewer and the characters. Like for how much emotion is thrown at us, for how much loud intense monologues were given to us, I felt nothing… Malcolm & Marie is less like a film and more like Sam Levinson crying for 100 minutes. 

It could not  be any more obvious to anyone. For people that do not know, Levinson got a bad review from a Los Angeles Times writer about his film Assassinnation Nation a few years ago. There is a huge rant at the start of the film that lasts till the end of the film, where Malcolm trashes a Los Angeles Times writer who gave him a great review. Malcolm is not upset about the great review; he is upset about how the critic talked about his film because they made it political by making it about race. Which leads to Malcolm complaining about what role race has in Hollywood and whether or not him being a black filmmaker has any effect on how his art is seen. Then we have to remember that the Los Angeles Times writer is a white woman, which leads to a seperate rant about white feminism and the role that white women have in the conversation. This is all acted out by a person of color, which was written by a white man. These are not conversations that should not be had, I just do not care what Levinson has to say about it. It would be one thing to say all this before watching it, but I did watch it and that is why I am saying it. Malcolm is not talking about everyone. Instead,he is talking about himself, which cannot be more obviously based on Levinson. 

It is not that complicated as to why I do not feel invested.I do not feel invested because these “characters” do not feel like people. They feel like lines on a page. I am never convinced that these two people existed before or after the film. The only person that exists is Sam Levinson. 

Now Marriage Story is one of my favorite films from 2019 and I am only bringing it up because people could try to easily use that against me. Probably because Noah Baumbach did a very similar thing, where Charlie is very similar to Baumbach to the way he looks and his career. Baumbach has said in some interviews that it is loosely based on his divorce. The reason why Baumach gets away with this is that he made Charlie a movie character, not a journal in the form of a human. Marriage Story works because the events and emotions in the film are driven by the situations Charlie finds himself in. Marriage Story would not be what it is without the lawyers, his son, the location, the cringey Scarlett Johansson shot. It is full of different angles. By the time the film is done, it has shown us a fuller picture on what the two characters mean and represent. It is why I dislike when people only associate that film with the screaming scene because that is not what Marriage Story is; however, Malcolm & Marie is just two people just screaming at each other. 

Marie is a semi interesting character who I wish we saw more of, but we only see one side of her. This is frustrating because I love Levinson’s directing in Euphoria. It feels very intune with the characters in the show, where this film just feels artsy just because it can. 

The Jazz is nice, but it adds nothing. The cinematography is amazing but looks like something you would find on Tumblr. The fact that it is in black and white feels completely pointless. They were all for an aesthetic that makes no sense with what they are trying to show off. Again, I do not think Malcolm & Marie is the worst thing at all. Some credits are over exaggerating, but there are people that love it. If you are one of those people, go watch more films.

Similar to Sam Levinson, I also made this review to let off steam and voice my opinion on something, so who am I to call myself anything better? This film was a really big let down for me because I had such high hopes because the writer and director of Euphoria and two of the best actors of our times. If you have nothing to watch, I’d recommend watching it just because, but there’s so much better like TENET or BlacKkKlansman.