Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
As a filmmaker and his girlfriend return home from his movie premiere, smoldering tensions and painful revelations push them toward a romantic reckoning.
Malcolm & Marie is a two-hander chamber piece shot in gorgeous black-and-white by Marcell Rév, with the cinematography being genuinely stunning and one of the film's strongest assets. John David Washington and Zendaya deliver committed, powerhouse performances that carry the film through its runtime. However, the plot is essentially a single extended argument that circles back on itself without meaningful progression, feeling more like an exercise than a fully realized story. The ending dissipates rather than resolves, leaving a hollow feeling. While the concept of a quarantine-era two-person drama has some novelty in execution, the underlying relationship dynamics and filmmaker-navel-gazing themes feel familiar from similar stage-bound dramas.