Actress-singer-influencer Zendaya, (yes, that’s her full name) stars in the upcoming black-and-white Netflix feature film “Malcolm & Marie.”(02.05.21) She teams up with her “Euphoria” showrunner, Sam Levinson (who directs here), with the help of “Tenet” actor John David Washington. Not much is known about the secretive plot, but what we do know is that Washington and Zendaya star as the title character, who play boyfriend and girlfriend forced to confront the nature of their relationship after they return home from the world premiere of his new film.
“Malcolm & Marie,” was filmed in secret over the summer amid the pandemic. The cast and crew filmed the movie in a quarantine bubble under script safety precautions. The film only has two actors in it and is set entirely in one location, which allowed the production to maintain the quarantine bubble the entire shoot. The film marks Levinson’s first feature since his misbegotten 2018 horror satire, “Assassination Nation.”
The first person you think of as this minimalist film unravels before your eyes is that of independent maverick, John Cassavetes; his imprint is all over Levinson’s brush strokes here. However, if Cassavetes could deliver the effortless abandon of conversation between his characters, via improv no less, Levinson struggles a bit more here in fully bringing the kind of authenticity needed in his shouting match to truly make “Malcolm and Marie” work.
As the movie, shot in gorgeous black and white by “Euphoria” DP Marcell Rév, continues on, there is the desperate sense that Levinson seems to be overreaching here. What was the exact point of this movie? A male artist’s struggle to deal with the reviews of his new movie? The crumbling of a relationship so thinly sketched that we have more questions than answers about its history by film’s end?
The intentions are in the right place — this is an ambitious statement from Levinson — but the endless rants and stringent monologues that invade this film feel forced and too on-the-nose. Washington doesn’t fully inhabit his role of artist ruminating in his own art, neither does Zendaya as the filmmaker’s muse/lover. These are technically well-accomplished performances, but lacking the kind of soul needed to humanize what we’re seeing onscreen.
The film is part of Netflix’s packed Oscar slate for the 2020-2021 awards season. The film was picked up by the streaming giant in September in a deal reportedly worth $30 million. It will begin streaming February 5th on Netflix and they expect a large audience for it since Zendaya has a massive following due to her Disney days as a teenager and then as the star of the ultra-popular “Euphoria.”
SCORE: C-