STILL AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (MALCOLM & MARIE)

 

It would be understandable to assume that Sam Levinson's dialogue heavy 'Malcolm and Marie' started life as a play.

However you'd be wrong.

Levinson's stylish black and white movie for Netflix wax conceived, financed, shot and edited entirely during the first five months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Filmed in June and July 2020, the idea emerged out of discussions between Levinson and one of its two stars, Zendaya when production on their HBO show 'Euphoria' was halted by the lockdown.

Initially the director pitched a thriller to the former Disney Channel star which would be shot in her home.

What they settled on was a two handed relationship piece that unfolded in real time.

After scrambling to get the first 10 pages of dialogue together, he persuaded his other star John David Washington to come on board by reading it over the phone.

Following consultatiins with the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the Director's Guild, the $2.5 million film began production as California emerged from the first lockdown.

Filmed in a private home in Carmel-By-The-Sea, all Coronavirus precautions were studiously followef.

The entire cast and crew were quarantined in the two weeks preceding and after the cameras rolled.

Daily temperature checks were taken, sanitation measures were increased and no more than 12 people were allowed on the set at any one time.

Netflix outbid HBO, A24 and Searchlight for the rights to the first Hollywood movie to emerge out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And with $30 million worth of distribution rights in the kitty, 'Malcolm and Marie' didn't have to worry about its performance when it went on limited release in US movie theatres on January 29.

Levinson's film, however, clearly has its eyes on awards season.

In recent days, its two stars have made the longlists for the BAFTAs for Best Actress and Best Actor.

And while she hasn't secured a Golden Globe or Screen Actors Guild nomination, Zendaya remains an outset bet for a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

'Malcom and Marie' tells the story in real time of a young couple returning to their home after a film premiere.

He is the self-absorbed director of an indie drama about a drug addict who has been working in New York's health system.

She was the main source of inspiration for it.

And that is the big bone of contention.

Marie is cheesed off that having drawn mostly from her life, Malcolm did not even acknowledge her during his onstage remarks at the premiere.

So what erupts is a quarrel that flares up with real venom at times over the course of 106 minutes.

It is undoubtedly stylish.

The film is impressively shot in black and white by cinematographer Marcell Rev who uses window frames and door frames to create a sense of these characters being boxed in.

Dolly shots and long takes are also deployed in a film that draws inspiration from the work of John Cassavetes, Spike Lee, Ingmar Bergman and Mike Nichols.

Audiences will be especially struck by the similarities to the angry barbs traded by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Nichols' adaptation big Edward Albee's 'Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' 

Like the 1966 film, which earned Taylor a Best Actress Oscar, 'Malcolm and Marie' makes good use of its claustrophobic set.

The other film that comes to mind is Ingmar Bergman's 'Scenes from a Marriage' which tackled with searing honesty the disintegration of a relationship.

But there is also a definite theatricality to Levinson's film that encourages its two performers to revel in the dialogue.

You cannot help feeling it would easily transfer to the stage.

Washington prowls around the house and often rages, with a particularly passionate rant about movie criticism inspired by a LA Times critic his character has a particular loathing of.

In a very physical performance, he even manages to devout a bowl of mac n'cheese aggressively while fuming at Marie.

Zendaya explodes from time to time but she also absorbs the verbal punches that Washington's character throws at you - sitting in one striking scene stoically in a bathtub.

But while Levinson's film captures the ebb and flow of a Lovers' argument on both sides, it sometimes loses the viewer by being too wordy and too self-absorbed.

Watching 'Malcolm and Marie' is akin to overhearing an argument erupt in public.

It initially fascinates but the lustre very quickly wears off as the angry words become petty, vindictive and repetitive.

After a blistering first 20 minutes, Zendaya and Washington struggle to hold our interest despite putting in spirited performances.

Even the rant about the LA Times critic seems over the top - with Malcolm labouring the point that you do not have to come from a particular community to capture its experience onscreen.

Of the two, Marie is the easier to warm to.

But for a film that revels in being authentic, the dialogue occasionally hits jarring, inauthentic notes.

And while it would like to be a 2020s version of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', unlike Albee's play and Nichols' film, there is no other couple to measure just how warped the relationship has become.

At one stage, Malcolm shouts: "Cinema doesn't need to have a message. It needs to have a heart, to have have electricity."

'Malcolm and Marie' certainly relies on elecriticity to power its performances and technically, it unquestionably has its moments - not least Rev's beautifully constructed final shots of Malcolm and Marie standing outside their house, framed in the windows from inside their bedroom.

But I were Levinson, I'd go back and check my fuse box.

This film's power supply seems to be tripping.

('Malcolm and Marie' wentbon limited release in US cinemas on January 29, 2021 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on February 5, 2021)

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