Malcolm and Marie

I haven't exactly been anticipating this film but was built with a lot of curiosity. With a bit of a backstory, this was the first film made since lockdown last year and was even made during the pandemic. There was a limited film crew and only two actors who were in each others bubble; John David Washington and Zendaya. Both had to prepare on their own and filming only last a month I believe but I could be wrong with the last one. That's all I knew going into this film

Starting with the positives, Zendaya and John David Washington completely hold their own in this film. I was nervous about watching a film with just two actors because that can bore a viewer very easily but that was not the case. These two have great chemistry amongst each other and are able to carry this film from start to finish.

And whilst I'll have more to say about Washington later on, Zendaya is just outstanding. She's able to be funny, sarcastic, emotional and vulnerable all the way through this film and she just pulls it off whilst making it look so so easy.

This is also a very dialogue heavy film and the dialogue is very powerful and hard hitting at times. Now a lot of films can have unnecessary exposition that can become a bit of a drag unless the film is dialogue based and this film 100% fits in that category. With the dialogue, we're able to understand who our characters, learn all about them and with that, they feel like fully developed characters.

Moving onto the mixed aspect of the film, the first thing I want to talk about is John David Washingtons performance. Now he gives a good performance but he also unnecessarily overacts throughout the entire film like he drank a whole case of energy drinks before shooting his scenes. In fact when he needed to be serious, it came off as very comedic so I wish he had contained his performance like Zendaya did.

Also now this is from a viewer perspective and I wasn't sure whether to mention this but watching this, this film covers emotional abuse in these characters relationship but the reason it's mixed for me is because I found it unclear who the main abuser was because both these characters are completely toxic towards each other and have emotionally abusive characteristics so it was hard to teĺl if one or both were abusive to each other. 

Onto the negatives now and before i go on, I just want to say this film did nothing wrong. This is just how I felt watching this film. The biggest thing that comes to mind is the cinematography. I have never enjoyed black and white films and this film is no exception. I appreciated the craft that went into this film but I really wish they had filmed it in colour because there were times I struggled to get into it.

This is also a film I don't think is rewatchable because of the films nature. I feel if I watch this film a second time, knowing what happens I would get bored after maybe 20 minutes. As a one time experience, it's fine but more than that, I would need to be in a very specific mood.

Overall this is a well made film that has so much to appreciate and will appeal to others differently. This isn't bad film but just not a film I'm likely to watch again.

⭐⭐⭐