Malcolm & Marie

2021
15
1h 46m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

42K

YOUR RATING

John David Washington and Zendaya in Malcolm & Marie (2021)

When filmmaker Malcolm (John David Washington) and his girlfriend Marie (Zendaya), return home from a movie premiere and await his film's critical response, the evening takes a turn as revelations about their relationship surface, testing the couple's love.

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Drama Romance

A director and his girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and face each other's turmoil during one long night.A director and his girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and face each other's turmoil during one long night.A director and his girlfriend's relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and face each other's turmoil during one long night.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

42K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 9 nominations total

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9:57

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
One of the first films to be written, directed, and completed during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Goofs
In the bathroom scene, Marie's bath water is clear in the first few shots, but is later seen to be cloudy without her obviously adding anything to it.

Quotes
[Marie walks into the room with a knife]
Malcolm: Marie, what are you doing? Put the knife down, please. Marie?
[she kneels down in front of him and plays with the knife]
Marie: Do you remember those antidepressants I was on? I'm not on them anymore. I'm not doing well. I'm really, really not doing well. I've never been clean. And I don't plan on getting clean. I'm a piece of shit. I'm a liar. I cheated on you. I fucked your friends
[she laughs]
Marie: I fucked your friends. God, I feel like I'm crazy. I've stolen from your mother. And you know what the fucked up thing is? I don't even care. I don't mind. Because I deserve it. Tell me where the fucking pills are. Tell me where the pills are.
[Malcolm struggles to answer, Marie puts the knife down and acts like herself again]
Marie: And that, Malcolm, is what authenticity buys you.
[she flips him off with both hands as she leaves the room]
Malcolm: Well, damn! Why didn't you do that in the audition?

Crazy credits
The title appears 13 minutes into the film.

Connections
Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Failed Oscar Bait Movies of 2020 (2021)

Soundtracks
Down and Out in New York City
Written by Bodie Chandler, Barry De Vorzon
Performed by James Brown
Courtesy of Universal Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews486

Featured review

5/10

Has its moments for sure, but can't quite sustain itself through all 106 minutes

Probably would have been better as a short film, because it really started to drag and feel a little repetitive in the second half.

It's a decent effort to do one of those one-location, limited cast kind of movies, but it is let down in the writing, with some dialogue that feels very overwritten at points, and a lot of scenes that feel like they hammer home the same point again and again. You could argue it's intentional, but I'm sure there would be ways to have that repetition as a theme without making the film feel like a bit of a chore to sit through after about the 50-minute mark.

That being said: even though the black and white cinematography doesn't seem to serve a concrete purpose, it does look fairly nice. And the film is saved by its two performances, who do surprisingly good work with a screenplay packed with lines (and whole scenes) that would be difficult to act convincingly.

Overall, it's far from terrible, and I did get a fair bit of enjoyment out of the first half and small parts here and there in the second, but it doesn't quite sustain itself well enough to justify the feature-length runtime, in my opinion.