Malcolm & Marie

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.

To my surprise, this was a very compelling film that featured captivating and powerful performances mixed with brilliant writing. The shifting balance between the two characters keeps us on edge the entire time and we're never quite sure where it's taking us next. It's definitely a daring film to make and I'm sure it will split audiences by a large margin. It's not very easy to digest and I believe it would be better suited for the stage than the screen. However, it's a bold and confident move from the director to make this kind of film, especially in this day and age of cinema, even though it doesn't entirely work to the level of his ambition.

It's a movie about two people who have no business being in a relationship starting an argument in every room they enter in a house they don't own. That's it. That's the entire movie.

The acting is good and it's beautifully shot but it's soooo repetitive. A character puts on music, a character smokes. They argue. They make-up. They discuss filmmaking and "art". Characters talk while shoveling food down their mouths. Wash, rinse, repeat. It could have been a good short film. You get everything you really need in like 30 min. But alas its feature length film. So instead you're just hit with the same points again and again. It never adds anything new.

Let me just sate the obvious first

BRILLIANT ACTING

I love Zendaya she's absolutely outstanding in this film and in general, but if you watch this film for Zendaya only and literally nothing else, you have absolutely no substance and no appreciation for ones art and are clearly ignoring an equally brilliant performance by John David Washington.

Anyone who has a problem with seeing the story of another couple or human emotion either has an unusually stable relationship or has never been in a relationship at all.

I'm seeing so many mixed reviews and the more negative reviews tend to say the same thing with absolutely NO originality. "it's pretentious" "not engaging" "it's just about a couple fighting". You don't have to like the film but at the very least be original in your criticism.

It's clear to me people are losing their sense of realism with being glued to the enormous trend of superhero sci-fi films and unnecessary sequels. Cinema is also about intriguing dialogue with realistic earthly circumstances. Sometimes you need to appreciate a more realistic emotional story.

This film is simple yet at the same time complex as what most relationships are. Human emotion and romance isn't sappy or cheesy one liners you see in sitcoms. It's deep, its raw, its cruel, and it crosses boundaries.

I give it a 7/10 overall it's a good film with excellent acting however the only critique I have with the film is that it remains the same with no unexpected twists or turns revealed.