Review of Malcolm & Marie (2021) by Tvjerry — 06 Feb 2021

Sam Levinson’s HBO series Euphoria was halted while filming Season 2 due to COVID. He and the show’s star Zendaya collaborated on this movie during the shutdown. It stars John David Washington as a filmmaker who comes home from his successful premiere to encounter scorn from his girlfriend (Zendaya).

He forgot to mention her in his speech, but that’s only the beginning of their verbal confrontation, which revolves around their relationship and ruminations on Hollywood politics. I was reminded of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf: One night of intense encounters, verbal sparring and vicious reproach (in black and white, no less).

Zendaya holds her own, but it’s Washington’s tour-de-force obsessed, angry and outraged character that makes the film worth watching. Levinson’s direction keeps the one-location, one-night setup visually interesting, but it’s his incisive (sometimes overwritten) script that provides plenty of stinging accusations and verbal showboating.

An intimate examination of a relationship packaged as an art film.