Entertainment
Zendaya’s Controversial 57% RT Netflix Movie Is Officially Better 5 Years Later
2026 is the year of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Along with their roles in two major blockbusters with deep ensembles, Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three, the pair kick off the year in the dual-starring vehicle, The Drama, Kristoffer Borgli‘s dark comedy-romantic drama, which sees them as a couple amid a grave turning point.
Zendaya, who also has Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Season 3 of Euphoria on the docket, is a tried and true star and cultural icon. Thanks to the cachet she’s built off Spider-Man and Dune, she can elevate the status of less commercially viable films like Malcolm & Marie, which saw her opposite John David Washington in this divisive Netflix drama released in 2021. This relationship drama with 57% on Rotten Tomatoes inspired controversy among audiences and its writer-director, Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson, but the film is worth another look five years later.
‘Malcolm & Marie’ Faced Criticism and Controversy Upon Release in 2021
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with everyone trapped inside, Netflix provided its subscribers with a timely original movie merely consisting of two people talking inside their home. Sam Levinson’s film follow-up to Assassination Nation and appetizer for Euphoria Season 2’s release in 2022, Malcolm & Marie is a chamber drama about a director, Malcolm (Washington), and his girlfriend, Marie (Zendaya), undergoing a turbulent night following the latter’s movie premiere. During their tense fight, culminating in years of pent-up frustrations, the future of their relationship is put in jeopardy. This was the first Hollywood feature to be written, financed, and produced during lockdowns in 2020, making the film a raw — albeit unsettling — time capsule.
Movies released on Netflix can struggle to find stickiness within the zeitgeist, but Malcolm & Marie sparked intrigue among audiences — for better or worse. While many critics were fond of Zendaya and Washington’s performances, the passion behind the film’s naysayers were pointedly aggressive. Being centered around a filmmaker, the self-serving nature of Levinson’s film is blatantly obvious from the get-go. Between Malcolm’s long-winded monologues about cinema and creative expression, Marie, despite sharing half ownership of the film’s title, is egregiously marginalized in the story, something that Levinson himself acknowledged. The movie faced a slew of other controversies, including the 12-year age gap between Washington and Zendaya and Levinson railing against film criticism, which the writer-director positioned as a discussion about a Black artist’s relationship to his work.
Netflix’s ‘Malcolm & Marie’ Is an Acting Showcase for Zendaya
It’s hard not to see John David Washington’s defensive and combative filmmaker character as an avatar of sorts for Levinson, a director and showrunner who has been the brunt of much criticism in response to the transgressive nature of Euphoria and his short-lived showbiz drama, The Idol. The film’s blunt dialogue becomes even more heavy-handed when interpreted as Levinson’s own rebuke of his critics, especially when factoring in controversies regarding the toxic set he harbored while filming Euphoria. The theatrical, capital “A” acting by its two stars and the black-and-white photography presented themselves laughably pretentious by its critics, as all these traits were already pushed to the maximum by Levinson in Euphoria. Malcolm’s constant lecturing about cinema to Marie, which borders on “mansplaining,” can feel gross, but in the end, you’re not supposed to come out of this extended fight between the couple emotionally unscathed.
With its two-person cast, one-location setting, and frantic psychological edge, Malcolm & Marie is the quintessential COVID-era film without being explicitly about the pandemic. The cooped-up frustration stemming from being with the same people and stuck in cyclical conversations of this period is reflected in Malcolm and Marie’s hostile interactions. This prolonged discussion, filled with unbridled rage and highfalutin dialogue indicative of people living in a Gilded Cage, seemingly has no resolution in sight unless one of the partners takes a drastic stand in the relationship.
While the film is ultimately a little too glossy for its own good, Malcolm & Marie, at its best, echoes the spirit of John Cassavetes‘ raw indie dramas about emotionally unstable people and marriages on the rocks. Luckily, what Sam Levinson might lack in documentary-like naturalism is made up for by Zendaya and John David Washington, whose performances appear as though they’re pulled from their own personal woes with close relatives. Despite being one of pop culture’s most premier figures, Zendaya boldly portrays herself in an unflattering light, and her sheer vigor elevates this experimental COVID production into a buzzworthy event film. Revisiting such a dire moment in recent history is a challenge, but you’ll be surprised by just how well Malcolm & Marie holds up in 2026.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login