Whether Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom or Prom, Netflix has been enjoying success lately taking some of Broadway’s most righteous endeavors and bringing them to a wider audience that the streaming service provides. Additionally, both these films are likely to hear their names when it comes time for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to reveal their nominations for the year that was.
Although not a Broadway production, their latest “new movie” as part of their promised “fresh film every week” effort certainly feels like it originated on the stage. Malcolm & Marie was born with the art of cinema front and center. The story even centers on a Hollywood director (John David Washington, Tenet) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) on what should be the biggest night of his career. With one location (a rented house) and only two actors—Washington and Zendaya—Malcolm & Marie could easily have been a stage play.
As it is, its innate nature benefits from the intimacy of the theater and allows both actors to explore the space much as they would if it were performed live. Zendaya and Washington command your attention throughout. The entire endeavor serves as a masterclass by both thespians in the art of acting for film and how to execute a characterization regardless of the confines of your filming situation.
It is mesmerizing witnessing how the movie’s helmer, Sam Levinson, orchestrates his actors over the course of the film. After all, within the realm of Malcolm & Marie, this should be Malcolm’s defining moment. The initial reviews are utilizing descriptors such as masterwork. Instead, there is a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye. The couple’s love is never in doubt, but how we got here and how each feels about it is the genesis of this journey. How it will resolve itself is anyone’s guess as is where the crux of the conversation will veer into next.
Heading into this screening there was an overwhelming sense of wonder and burning curiosity as to how one would build an entire film around only two characters on one evening and a singular location. Before you could say “action,” Levison has audiences following his every written word and his talentedly gifted duo.
Also enthralling is the filmmaker’s decision to shoot Malcolm & Marie entirely in black and white. It is a striking visualization as it serves an existential element as well. As everyone who has ever been in a relationship knows, when it comes to any argument or discussion, there is no black and white. In fact, it is more accurate to describe these disagreements as having shades of grey. There is a lot of pent-up emotion and history going on here. Both Washington and Zendaya come at this fateful night as if their individualized futures will be written by what occurs throughout this serene setting.
Levinson, who caused quite a stir with his 2018 Assassination Nation, is the son of filmmaker extraordinaire Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog). The younger Levinson also ruffled some feathers as a writer on the HBO hit show Euphoria. It is there that Sam Levinson became immediately aware of the gifts of Zendaya (who won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) and certainly how he saw her as the perfect Marie for his Netflix flick.
There is so much going on within the confines of this tale, it would detract from the Malcolm & Marie experience to get into specifics of the conversations/fights/disagreements that permeate Levinson’s screenplay. In fact, one doesn’t need those details to discuss the emotive power of the film.
There is the most extraordinary of journeys for every second of this black and white wizardry. It is all so organic. Still, there is not one moment that felt like a “gotcha” moment that exists in a vacuum. The entire screenplay is so well put together. It befits the deeply personal journey of self-discovery and moments of self-awareness that permeates Malcolm & Marie.
Too often, too many characters—from a myriad of other films—are void of this very thing.
Washington is having a moment. Given his talent, it is utterly warranted. Witnessing first-hand how his own father (Denzel Washington) approaches the challenges, seen and unforeseen, of making movies and being true to your character has likely helped his method a wee bit. The “this guy is a cinematic force of thespian nature” may have first started being discussed with his turn in the Oscar-winning Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. The actor has never taken his foot off of the gas since with grab you by the lapels turns in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and opposite Robert Redford in The Old Man & the Gun. Let’s not forget his one-man highlight reel that is his performance in Dwayne Johnson’s HBO hit show Ballers.
In Malcolm & Marie, there are countless moments where the son of the newly minted New York Times’ “Greatest Actor of the 21st Century” produces emotional anvils that came at the audiences’ collective heads with the panache and power to literally knock you off your feet. Don’t make the mistake of standing up to get a drink or a snack as Washington unleashes a monologue. The end result may just be needing some help getting up off the floor!
Through these expositions, Washington not only paints a picture with his delivery that is as clear as anything Monet crafted, but the actor does so intently that one will absolutely want to witness the Netflix film a multitude of times.
Not to be outdone, Washington is joined in the beyond brilliant arena by his co-star, Zendaya. The Greatest Showman actress has steadily built up an impressive resume of work that showcases her vast range on one hand, but also the promise of a young actress who is just scratching the surface of her potential on the other.
She and Washington have a chemistry that is not easily defined. It exists in each moment individually in a way that is the key to this entire film being one of the best movie experiences of this crazy timeline we call “a year!” The instant they return from Malcolm’s premiere, Marie—thinking of her lover’s needs first and never those that are her own—listens to him wax poetic about the response to his film as she makes some macaroni and cheese.
She doesn’t even change out of her dazzlingly sexy gown before making the American culinary staple of comfort food. That is just one example of the balance of “power” in this relationship, and from there it goes deeper and not only more pointed… but piercing. There is a vat of pent up emotional issues and before the darkness becomes the dawn, believe you-me that each will have their time to make wrongs right.
Zendaya is the most fascinating of actresses. She has slowly, but surely, garnered critical acclaim to go with her teen girl fandom earned from those early Disney days. There are talent announcements throughout a career that for some are spread over a several project pedigree. For Zendaya, one can easily point to this meaty majesty, given to her by Levinson. Malcolm & Marie is a script every actor and actress should own due to the fact that there are repeated magnificent monologues strewn throughout that are gifts to the audition G-ds.
There has always been a fierceness to Zendaya, but it has been masked in the subtly that is her delivery in roles such as the “hidden” girlfriend of Zac Efron in The Greatest Showman. To say she goes deep in Malcolm & Marie is a gross understatement. From how she shapes her lips, to the angle of her eyelids and ‘brows, there is a quiet explosiveness from the actress in the Netflix streaming film that bows February 5 that also must be experienced more than once.
Malcolm & Marie also spotlights that Zendaya and Washington need to be paired repeatedly in the future. The complexity that it takes to achieve electric cinematic chemistry between two performers will feel shorted if this does not happen. Their collective gifts know no bounds.
Grade: A