Last modified on Sat 30 Jan 2021 19.42 EST
Netflix
Film, US, 2021 – out 5 February
Style. Utter style. Those were the first words that sprang to my mind while watching writer/director Sam Levinson’s slickly shot (on 8mm cameras) monochrome two-hander about a vain film director, Malcolm (John David Washington), and his significantly younger girlfriend, Marie (Zendaya). But as the tone of the drama oscillates from celebration – starting immediately after the premiere of Malcolm’s new film, which is a hit – to confrontation, my response became more like: “Pipe down, some of us have to work in the morning.”
Zendaya as Marie and John David Washington as Malcolm in Malcolm and Marie. Photograph: Dominic Miller/Netflix