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Rating: Malcolm & Marie is the film of the moment, without a doubt. Personally, I am among those who appreciated this work and found it to be a beautiful, interesting film worth remembering for various reasons.
It is not the first film, of course, to showcase such dynamics, issues related to a two-person relationship, with intense dialogues, sometimes theatrical setting, conflict, underlying issues, love and hate, mutual dependence, and complex psychological relations. Marriage Story is the most recent and debated case, a film that in turn paid tribute to Bergman, but also echoed works like Revolutionary Road or Blue Valentine. Another case is the masterpiece Palme d'Or winner Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which anyway did not limit itself to the couple's microcosm but showed a much wider world of reflections and themes. And many others.
What makes Malcolm & Marie particularly interesting, however, is its dual nature: on one hand, psychological exploration of the relationship, on the other, and perhaps even more, a true essay on cinema. Many are indeed the tributes and citations, simply nominal (from Welles to Wyler to Pontecorvo, and many others), or more substantial (to American indie cinema, from daddy Cassavetes downwards), from which probably also derives the same aesthetic choice of black and white. And above all, there are many theoretical reflections on the nature of cinema, on the meaning of cinema. On the relationship between cinema and reality.
Cinema that doesn't necessarily have to be "message" or imply realism, social critique/denunciation, but rather communicate something profound, reaching even the most authentic sense of things, through dramatic experience, the transfiguration of an idea, the aesthetic and emotional representation that knows how to touch personal chords. An idea of cinema that I have, personally, always shared and made my own. And finally, a praise of the mystery of cinema, as opposed to the character of Malcolm, who doesn't value mystery in the couple's relationship because he is extremely taken by his own ego.
Recurrent within the film is indeed the issue of egocentrism. The egocentrism that is characteristic of every director, cinema for a director comes first, and every person or element of their life is rendered an instrument for the realization of their art. Without a doubt, there is also a clear identification between Levinson (an emerging director known especially for Euphoria) and Malcolm, his ideal alter-ego.
But aside from everything, every varying situation between the two protagonists (actors Zendaya and Washington Jr., both at high levels) is rendered excellently, and often significant and important moments are touched. As much as it is undeniable, the film is deliberately very over-the-top and often shouted, thus showing a very strong passion and communicative urgency.
I think it is a film that should also be seen a couple of times. Not because it is a film difficult to understand, but because, when a film is basically solely based on dialogue, it is right to see it multiple times to memorize and best capture every nuance. And every nuance in a film like this is important.
A film of monologues and long takes, very ambitious, to the point of appearing pretentious (not for me, I specify), but of true and visceral love for cinema, also in the awareness that everyone a bit, among directors, actors, and generally in the world of the seventh art, are a bit of whores.
Gervais had already said it clearly, after all.
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