Netflix & Spill: Malcolm & Marie
*long fart noise*
A look into the Netflix & Spill process: It is currently Tuesday, February 2 and this my internal battle. Netflix is dropping three movies on February 5 and I’m not watching all of them. I'm picking one. But how do I pick? The internet won’t shut up about Malcolm & Marie, the John David Washington and Zendaya movie but God does it look painful. The other options this week are Space Sweepers and The Last Paradiso. Space Sweepers is a Korean sci fi flick, not usually my fav genre and it’s over 2 hours. The Last Paradiso is an Italian romance movie but the tagline is “In 1950s Italy, a farmer's dream of improving workers’ living conditions collapses when he falls for the landowner's daughter.” You had me in the first half not gonna lie.
Anyway it’ll be a game time decision.
Friday, February 5: I just finished watching….Malcolm & Marie, yes you guessed it! This is probably the one and only time I will watch a movie for the fans instead of for myself. I knew I shouldn’t have but I’ll be able to participate in all the discourse and it’s probably what you’ll end up watching anyway.
Let’s hit it.
Malcolm & Marie stars John David Washington — yes Denzel’s son — and Zendaya — yes Bella Thorne’s best friend. At the end of the day it’s supposed to be about a couple’s relationship. Malcolm’s new film just premiered and he’s on cloud nine but Marie isn’t. We come to learn that Malcolm didn’t thank her in his speech, even though the movie is about her life and her ongoing recovery from addiction.
As my fellow straight, Lin Manuel Miranda said, “love is love is love is love” and I agree! Unless...it’s an age gap. That is not “love is love is love is love” for me. They hammer home often in the film that Marie is young, she was just 20 when they met, and their relationship doesn’t seem too old so I’m guessing they’re both playing their age. She’s 24 and he is 36. My brain fully shuts down when it comes to age gaps. I can’t overcome them to just “enjoy”.
In a very Marriage Story-type way (the only connection the films have) the actors seem to think acting means yelling. We know this is not true! I can — and do — yell very very well, but I would not call myself a great actor. Okay I lied, there’s another connection between the movies: They were both written and directed by white men. Malcolm & Marie is written and directed by Sam Levinson, whose name I’ll be honest, I recognized but did not know. I did the favor of looking him up for you. He made the weirdo sleeper hit (on its way to being a cult classic I truly think*) Assisination Nation and his father is Barry Levinson, yes of Rain Man fame.
*While I was working at the film festival my pals and I went to the movies to see Assisintation Nation and we had a blast! Shout out Natalie, Morgan, and Michael! Honestly the tracking shot outside of the house that’s like 6 minutes long is extremely good. The movie overall who’s to say — but we had fun! And we wanted to dress up in those red leather trenches for Halloween but Morgan was the only one who did.
Hopefully you’ve seen Malcolm & Marie by now. If not pause this, watch it and come back (just kidding do not watch the film just read ahead). Now that I actually know I’m writing a newsletter I took notes this time, getting back into the whole writing groove. Both a blessing and a curse we’ll start out with: I made bagels this morning so I had to pause the film every 10-20 minutes. Which was good because I was exhausted watching this. John David Washington literally says, “You are exhausting” to Zendaya in the movie and I went, “Yeah bud you both are.” The bad part about my frequent stops is this 1 hour and 46 minute movie (an hour too long honestly) took me close to 3 hours to watch. YIKES!
At first glance you would think this film is made for me. One of my favorite tropes is a story that takes within the amount of time we watch the movie. One night, one conversation, one moment in time. That is this movie. But, the film didn’t benefit from that in any way. It’s years of build up, it’s too much back story, it’s literally spoon feed to us in every scene.
I thought we were all clowning on the movie but it seems like a lot of people are really enjoying it, why? I don’t know. But mainly people seem to agree it’s beautiful to watch. People seem to think that if a film is in black and white and shot on film it’s automatically better. It has higher value, the art is taken more seriously, yadda yadda yadda. Logically we know that’s bullshit but I think Malcolm & Marie proves the bullshit-ness. It’s not beautiful to watch. It’s not pretty. It probably didn’t need to be in black and white.
The biggest issue I had with the film is knowing that Sam Levinson, a white man, wrote this. The film is essentially a giant F YOU to modern day film criticism and complaining about who is or is not allowed to make what art (something he’s gotten in trouble for before re: Assassination Nation). If I’m a man why can’t I write about women! Blah blah blah. We get it! You’re hurt! I know for a fact people much smarter than me have thoughts on this but having John David Washginton, a black man, be his mouth piece for the film felt tone deaf. Is it ironic? Is it super woke of him? Is it actually genius and he pulls it off? I lean toward the “this is very bad” camp.
Now I wish I could read the Kate Walsh review of Assisination Nation behind the LA Times paywall that has haunted Sam Levinson all this time. Stop using this movie as your therapy and just...actually...go to real therapy. As a viewer you’re given no opportunity to think for yourself. Levinson by way of Washington will tell you what to think and how to feel. Do not be fooled my dear friend, there are no real conversations in this film. One will yell, and I mean yell, my volume didn’t go higher than 6 once, for five or ten minutes and then just walk around the house. They’ll bone. They’ll pee. They’ll go outside to smoke. Marie disappears a lot? And then the other will return and speak their piece for 10 minutes on a different topic. A conversation never happens, it never flows.
The film is rated R because every other word is an F bomb. It reminds me of my screenwriting class I took in college (a Christian college, which feels relevant to remind you) where my professor taught us not to use explicit language too much. If you do, it will lose meaning. The purpose is to have that shock value when someone curses, and I think about this a lot. All Malcolm and Marie do is yell and curse. F this, f that. And I’m not anti cursing, I do it myself! But, when you talk like this for 90% of the movie my professor is right that it loses the spark you could have. They become caricatures of themselves, almost speaking in tongues the way they hurl deranged and confusing insult after insult at each other.
I refuse to give praise for completing this all during a pandemic with a skeleton crew and in one location. While the idea is interesting and cool it just proves once again rich people can do literally anything they want. Even if we don't want it. Even if it’s not good. They own us.
Just think...this movie sold for $30 million to Netflix and it seems like the man never even wrote a second draft. I also just think it’s fair if Zendaya walks around in her underwear for the entire film it’s only fair that John David Washington at least removes his suit!
I shoulda watched Space Sweepers.
Next week we’ll be watching To All the Boys I Loved Before 3!! I definitely recommend watching the first two if you haven’t already! But if you don’t wanna put all that time in I’m pretty sure you could just jump right into the third, although you won’t love Peter Kavinsky as you should.
ugh. so glad i read this before watching. thank you for helping me dodge a bullet!!!