Movie Review: Malcolm and Marie

So last week I was debating which movie I should watch. I was going to watch Marriage Story because I saw it got a really high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but then I remember I had seen the trailer for the recent film Malcolm & Marie, starring John David Washington and Zendaya, and I really liked the trailer and thought, “I really want to see this movie.” But then I saw Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 59 percent, so I thought, “Ohhh, maybe I shouldn’t see this movie.” But then I saw that 85 percent of Google users liked the movie, so then I thought, “Wait, am I not going to watch this movie just because it didn’t get a high rating from the critics?” I have learned in the past while watching films and writing about them on this blog that while it’s great to watch the films that earn Oscars and Golden Globes and get 90 percent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. But sometimes there’s movies that critics rate 23 percent or some not very high percent, and yet moviegoers end up giving the film five stars. Also, it’s Black History Month, so I’m not going to turn down a movie that’s got two Black leading stars in it, shot in the style of Frances Ha (one of my favorite films), who also produced it. This is not the time to turn down peak Black excellence, my friends.

To be honest, I haven’t seen Zendaya’s work before, I only heard about the films and TV shows she starred in like The Greatest Showman and Euphoria. And I haven’t seen many of John David Washington’s films or shows either, only BlacKkKlansman. But the two of them…their acting…was just absolutely incredible. And I’m not just saying that. It actually held me in so much that I had to stop jotting down notes about the film and just watch the dialogue between Malcolm and Marie.

Interestingly enough, I just found out from the Wikipedia page on John David Washington’s bio that they filmed Malcolm and Marie in secret during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthony D’Alessandro, writing for a piece on the film’s production in Deadline on July 8, 2020, had all the details: On March 16 Sam Levinson, creator of Euphoria, got a call that production for the show would be shut down due to the pandemic. Zendaya called Levinson and asked if he could write and direct a film during quarantine and within six days Levinson came up with Malcolm & Marie. Sam and his wife Ashley (who produced Bombshell, one of my favorite films, and co executive produced Queen and Slim, another of my favorite films), producer Kevin Turen, John and Zendaya funded the film during pre-production and production. It’s also pretty cool because I noticed in the end credits it said that a portion of the sales of the movie were donated to Feeding America, and it was one of the few times I saw this in movie credits, so I wondered “Ooh, how did that happen?” It turns out that film producers Yariv Milchan and Michael Schafer told Levinson they wanted to finance the film and donate the proceeds to charity. I just thought that was so cool, especially at a time when food insecurity has been at an all time high during the pandemic. Also, not only was it boss that Zendaya and John David Washington were producers of the film but Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi, the very talented and incredible rapper) was an executive producer for the film. When his name flashed on the credits, I nearly squealed with joy! 🙂

Also, the film was shot in accord with very strict COVID-19 safety protocols so that the cast and crew could remain safe. It’s also super dope that the filming location was at this super eco-friendly building (according to D’Alessandro, it’s called The Caterpillar House, and it is an LEED home whose glass doors provided fresh air so that the producers wouldn’t have to use so much A/C or heat while shooting the film. I just looked up what LEED means and it means Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a program certifying green buildings) and was on land where the company could shoot the film without running into any legal trouble. Co-executive producer Katia Washington headed all of the safety protocols during production, such as the cast and crew wearing masks at all times, eating in designated areas (the chef also had to quarantine with the group) and not allowing anyone to leave the property. If you read the full piece (which I definitely recommend you do because it’s fascinating how they managed to put this movie together in secret when the pandemic was getting really bad and film and TV production was shutting down almost everywhere) the protocols they followed were very well thought out. I definitely appreciate these protocols more after working at an office where strict COVID-19 protocols have been enforced in order to keep everyone safe. I also appreciate these protocols that Katia and the team headed because I think about how Tom Cruise had to yell at the team members who didn’t follow social distancing guidelines on set because Mission Impossible had already had to shut down production earlier during the pandemic and Cruise was just so fed up with having his job and other people’s jobs put at risk due to people not taking the transmission of coronavirus seriously enough (although some say he was right to yell like that to his team-I guess you could call it in Buddhist terms “courageous compassion”- others like Katie Hurley say that his rant just brought more stress upon the team in a public health crisis that is already stressful for everyone and their loved ones). Although I don’t know whether or not Katia or the team in charge of the protocols had to yell at certain times if people accidentally broke one of the protocols or not, but it seemed that they managed to keep their heads above water with getting these regulations together in such a short production time.

Alright, so now that I’m done gushing about that, let me gush about the film itself for a while.

So the biggest thing about this film that has me gushing over it is the dialogue. There is just so much raw power in the way that Malcolm and Marie talk with one another. Each of the characters takes turns giving these powerful monologues. Malcolm will talk on and on while Marie will look at him, and then Marie will talk to Malcolm and he will listen to her. The insults they throw at each other though were really deep. Malcolm thinks that Marie wouldn’t know what it’s like to be a filmmaker because she quit acting after a while. Marie, however, reminds Malcolm that he based his film’s character Imani on her life, so if she had acted in the film herself rather than having some girl named Taylor play that role, she would have felt better and could process her past struggles with addiction and self-harm in a healthier way. Malcolm argues that it wouldn’t have been as interesting had Marie acted in the film as Imani because everyone talks about how they want authenticity in film, but it’s a word that doesn’t have meaning anymore because no one knows what truly goes into making a film. He also digs at Marie when she breaks down and asks him why she didn’t get the role of Imani, and tells her that it didn’t matter how much talent she had. Even though she was a talented person, he argues that she didn’t truly want the role and was reluctant to take it even though he had given her the opportunity to do so. I think what really got me about the film, too, was the power of nonverbal communication. Sometimes you don’t even have to talk to convey what you’re feeling; the eyes, the lips, the facial expressions sometimes can convey more than any words can. When Malcolm talks about how unfair the movie reviewer’s critique of his film was, you just see a small smile crack across Marie’s face as she patiently listens to him, showing how, even with all their imperfections as a couple, she still loves him. When Marie tells him how egotistical he is, he just listens to her talk and you can see how wounded he feels. This deep chemistry between the two characters is shown both in their powerful honest dialogues with each other and also in their facial expressions. This is what kept me captivated watching the film.

Another thing I loved was that the movie is shot in black and white. According to Zendaya, they shot the film in black and white not just to pay tribute to the timeless Hollywood classic black and white films, and not just for the pure sake of aesthetics, but because too just having these two Black people be at the center of this classic black and white film is a way of reclaiming the narrative of Black Hollywood. Even though Zendaya acknowledges that many Black filmmakers have shot their films in black and white, there weren’t too many black and white films where Black people got to tell their own stories. And she’s right. Even though I myself am not well-versed in black and white cinema, I can count maybe a few movies where black people were allowed to speak into the camera, to tell their own narratives instead of letting the white protagonist tell it for them. I can only think of one movie and that is Stormy Weather (1943) with Bill Robinson and Lena Horne. The film was significant because at the time there weren’t many films where Black actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions, and Stormy Weather was one of the few films to have an all Black cast. I acknowledge that there are elements of minstrelsy and racial stereotypes in Stormy Weather. But when Zendaya mentioned the historical lack of Black representation in mainstream leading roles, Stormy Weather was one of the few classic films I could think of where Black people played leading roles. And I think that’s why I loved Malcolm and Marie, because the two leading Black characters got to have a deep discussion that wasn’t being interrupted by anyone else. Malcolm and Marie is one of the few, perhaps the first black and white film I’ve seen featuring two Black lead characters who get to tell their narrative onscreen. It’s like by being the only two characters in the movie, they get to reclaim this private space for dialogue and intimacy.

The way the film was shot in black and white film made me think a little bit about Frances Ha, a film directed by Noam Baumbach. When I watched the film it gave the movie this sophisticated sort of feel, like instead of being set in the 21st century I was watching a film set in the 1960s in New York City. It was actually kind of calming watching the film in black and white even though of course Frances’ struggles to find herself and pay her rent are not fun. But with Malcolm and Marie, there was just something so refreshing about seeing Black people inhabit that intimate space that Frances enjoyed in telling her life story, and being able to tell their stories from their own unique perspectives as Black people. I don’t even think it’s fair for me to compare Frances Ha to Malcolm and Marie because Frances Ha was about a young white 20 something trying to figure out her life, and while in some sense it sends a universal message of don’t give up on your dreams, it was just nice seeing Malcolm and Marie because they got to have these tough conversations with each other about race and being a Black filmmaker in Hollywood. As someone interested in filmmaking, I gained a lot of insight from Malcolm and Marie’s conversations about what it’s like being in the film industry as a Black person, and I really loved their whole conversation about authenticity and what makes a movie authentic. I love technicolor movies of course, but when I saw Malcolm and Marie it somehow gave the film a more introverted feel. I guess because I wasn’t so focused on the color schemes of the room and surroundings I could just focus on the dialogue between the two characters. I don’t know how to explain it really, it just gave the film a more intimate feeling.

I think the music also gives the movie its intimacy and its significance as a film with two leading Black characters in it. The film opens when Malcolm plays “Down and Out in New York City” by James Brown, and he is talking about how good his film is, and Marie is just listening to him. Then when they fight she plays “Get Rid of Him” by Dionne Warwick as a sort of comeback. And the last scene features Malcolm and Marie standing in silence together, and is followed by “Liberation” by Outkast. The last song is a mixture of jazz and R and B, which is so fitting for the last scene of the film because after all of the deep dialogues and raw emotions that Malcolm and Marie expressed towards one another, this song serves as a sort of release in tension. “Liberation” is one of my favorite songs, and I think it fit really well with this final scene because after all the intensity of the film I was able to finally take a breath and go “Wow, that was a really good movie.” It’s one of those films I wouldn’t mind watching again for the sake of just hearing the dialogue because there was so much I could analyze and look into.

Malcolm and Marie (2021). Directed by Sam Levinson. Rated R for pervasive language and sexual content.