jenny🧿

Malcolm & Marie

they should've went with the zendaya still being trapped in the disney universe plot

Licenciado Mxje

Malcolm & Marie

Eight minutes and i'm alrrady bombed with Levinson's hot takes. He wishes so bad to be Barry Jenkins jsjsjs

Codeliusthe2nd

Malcolm & Marie

With his first feature Assassination Nation, director Sam Levinson showed that he had a unique perspective and believes he has something new to say when it comes to the current culture. His televison series Euphoria solidified the fact that he does have an art for storytelling, and while a majority of his characters are caricatures of modern teenagers, he still has created a few well-rounded and interesting characters. Despite his challenge at creating an array of well-written characters, Levinson still has an art at writing compelling television and films. So, what happened with Malcolm & Marie? Levinson does think he has something to say - he’s shown it in Assassination Nation and Euphoria that he has some things to say about modern society. He tries this again with Malcolm & Marie, and ultimately brings no new ideas to the table. Rather than even attempting at being subtle, Levinson spews his every thought onto the page. These characters act as a smoke screen, him hiding behind these thinly veiled caricatures of a modern couple. He writes rants that go on for ages, attempting to intricately to dig into his problems with criticism, politics within film criticism, and how celebrity affects relationships, but regurgitates onto the page without taking a second to examine if what he has to say actually is important. There’s nothing important to say with this film. It tries so hard to be something it isn’t - it tries it’s hardest to be a criticism, but doesn’t have any purpose at all. It’s pretentious just to be pretentious. It’s known that I tend to enjoy films that are labeled as more “pretentious”, because most of the time, they genuinely have something important and new to say. I cannot say the same about Malcolm & Marie. It tries so hard to be this unique indie film, shot in a gorgeous black and white, but ends up falling completely flat. It has the look of a well-done film, but it’s only a facade. The screenplay for the film is difficult to digest - it’s explosive. There isn’t any kind of filter, so these rants go on for ages, when they had no need to. These fights that seem to have no end have nothing to say, there’s no purpose behind them, there’s no purpose behind these characters. There is no sense of authenticity here, it just seems like someone angry and upset who decided to film their thoughts without restraint. It may work for some people, since that anger can bring out some passion, but it just causes this film to become muddy and, quite frankly, messy. I had high hopes for Malcolm & Marie. I genuinely was excited to see what Levinson managed to accomplish during the pandemic, but in all honesty, he should just stick to Euphoria and get someone to reel in his thoughts. There needed to be restraint and editing, rather than blind passion behind the writing of this film. Zendaya and Washington turn out the best performances they could with the script they were given, and were the highlights of the film. But, the rest of the film had nothing new to say, and tried it’s hardest to pretend that it does. Malcolm & Marie is a true disappointment from a voice that seemed to have something interesting to say.

Lex

Malcolm & Marie

great cast and b&w tint but the dialogue from a white man is so cringe worthy WHEN you put context to black couple; should've done it to white cast and it would be believable 🏃🏻‍♂️💨