John David Washington | Screenlife Reviews

Forget Godzilla vs. Kong, the biggest cinematic showdown of the year may also be the most unexpected, in the form of Sam Levinson’s fiercely compelling relationship drama: Malcolm & Marie. Don’t be fooled by the unsuspecting title however, these two could not be further from the same side, engaged in a fierce mental and emotional war of words after a (some might say) seemingly inconsequential mistake opens the doors for a couple’s skeletons to come crashing out of the closet in spectacular fashion. With only two actors to rely for the entire film – the brilliant pairing of Zendaya and John David Washington – Levinson wrings every last drop of tension and emotional devastation out of the affair in a beautifully shot, wonderfully written and masterfully acted piece of cinema.

On the self-proclaimed “biggest night of his life” writer/director Malcolm (Washington) returns home with his girlfriend Marie (Zendaya) to the palatial house rented for them by the studio after the premiere of his latest film, a sweeping opus centred around a young girl cleaning up her drug-riddled life. While Malcolm celebrates in one of several incredible tracking shots that follow him throughout the house – easily the nicest since Parasite and practically a third character in the film by the end – we are aware of a palpable tension in the air, a feeling that something unsaid is lingering between the couple. As Marie silently prepares dinner Malcolm too becomes aware of this energy, earnestly enquiring about Marie’s mood before demanding she tell him why she is upset, the first of many instances where he thoroughly puts his foot in it. What follows is 90 minutes of two people completely let off the chain, each intent on “winning” the argument and going to increasingly underhanded and personal levels to get their point across and come out the victor – if either is left standing that is.

While the thought of watching two people fight may sound like something of a drag, Levinson infuses his script with enough moments of levity to pull you out of the depths of anger and heartbreak before they swallow you. Washington, in particular, shows some serious comedic chops here with scathing yet perfectly timed jabs in the middle of a heated fight and one seriously impressive rant about the very concept of film criticism and reviews (to even write this is a terrifying prospect after hearing Malcolm’s eviscerating speech). A hilarious recurring joke between the pair about a writer for the LA times and her views on Malcolm’s movie is undoubtedly the highlight, making you momentarily forget that these two were at each others throats not moments ago, and are now united in their hilarious derision of this outsider. This B-story of Malcolm’s wild responses to the surge of releasing reviews also serves to give the audience a moment to pause and breathe before the ware resumes, and whilst it is written spectacularly and delivered flawlessly by Washington, the dialogue is just a little too deep cut at times, feeling more like Levinson showing off his knowledge of film history rather than making a concise point about the craft.

Where Levinson’s message is at its most potent is in the arguments that make up the bulk of the runtime. This is far from your traditional rom-com where love wins out in the end after a few spots of trouble, but instead the unravelling of a five year relationship where everything bubbling under the surface finally spills over in spectacular fashion. Metaphorical knives are wedged in backs and verbal slaps in the face are frequent as Malcolm and Marie go to increasingly low levels, referencing ex-lovers and completely shattering one another’s self-confidence. It’s not all destructive though, in their own especially dark ways the couple are trying to be constructive with each other, pointing out flaws that you can tell have shattered illusions and altered the other person’s perception of themselves forever. It’s fascinating to watch these two people evolve and change over the course of the night – a series of conversations is rarely this captivating (save for The Social Network) – and you will be as emotionally exhausted as Zendaya and Washington appear at the end of it all.

Anyone who doubted the comparisons to his famous father after Blackkklansman will be silenced here by John David Washington’s fierce performance, channelling an aggression and physicality that is impossible to tear your eyes away from, filling the screen with his presence as he parades around the room spouting monologues to thrilling effect. In those quieter moments, he is no less engaging, often conveying the entire emotional spectrums in scenes through facial expressions alone. Not to be outdone, Zendaya continues her winning streak following her Emmy win for Euphoria, sharing a few similarities with her character Rue and delivering that same brand of subdued yet somehow manic energy, with a heart-breaking performance that will shatter audiences and likely prime her for a run at an Oscar. During one of Malcolm’s more callous attacks, the camera holds on Marie sitting in a bathtub clutching her knees, holding on her face for an almost uncomfortable amount of time, as you slowly watch her poker face of indifference fracture after each barb, revealing the vulnerable, hurt woman underneath. It marks a shift in the film as well as the couple’s relationship, prompting a kamikaze onslaught from Zendaya in the second half of the film that sucks the oxygen out of the room with tension as she unleashes all of her gripes from the relationship, risking everything now in an attempt to get Malcolm to simply understand her.

Making the whole film more impressive is the fact that it was conceived, written and filmed entirely during the COVID pandemic with a minimal crew, a feat that I’d wager puts most pandemic-prompted hobbies to shame. A rich black and white colour palette goes beyond the gimmick, adding another level of beauty and classiness to Malcom & Marie’s surroundings while also acting as a physical metaphor for the nature of their arguments: seen by the two of them as needing to define a clear winner and loser when in actuality the whole affair is a mix of different shades of grey. Smooth camera work all around and a killer score from Euphoria collaborator Labrinth combine with the monotone colouring to give the film a timeless and classy presence – a story told through a modern relationship, but which carries universal themes of trust and commitment that would be as hard-hitting and relevant in the 20th century as they are now.

Malcolm & Marie is the first truly great film of 2021. The fact that Sam Levinson is able to stretch such tension and genuine intrigue out of such a simple premise is nothing short of incredible. Drawing you in with a familiar scenario and twisting the situation on its head completely, he creates an edge of your seat thrill ride of domestic chaos; fast and furious word slinging at its most potent and acerbic. John David Washington and Zendaya add another notch to their already impressive belts with two pitch-perfect performances, bouncing off each other with a rhythm and chemistry that hopefully paves the way for many more collaborations between the pair. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching this probably shouldn’t be your go-to film to get sparks flying – but that’s ok, you still have another 27 days in the month to treat yourself to this fiery anti-romance.

Malcolm & Marie stars Zendaya & John David Washington – Streaming on Netflix from February 5th.

Watching Christopher Nolan’s latest film Tenet was one of the most frustrating cinematic experiences I’ve ever had. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad film by any stretch; spinning a nail-bitingly tense story of high-tech underground arms dealings and the special unit tasked with putting a stop to them around a typically complex sci-fi conceit: the inversion of time around objects causing them to move backwards. Tenet has so much going for it in the right direction – a top-tier cast with stand-out performances from John David Washington and Batman-to-be Robert Pattinson, stunning cinematography, breathtaking visual effects and a suitably epic score from Ludwig Gorranson. So the fact that something as minor (in the grand scheme of things) as sound mixing almost derails the entire thing is a huge blow. As is always the case with Nolan’s work, spoilers are a huge issue – but worry not, this will be as spoiler-free as possible.

That spoiler-free promise becomes immediately difficult to uphold when you have to try and explain the concept of Tenet, but the basic premise involves John David Washington’s “Protagonist” being recruited by a shadowy organisation to investigate a potentially world-ending discovery: the reversal of an item’s entropy causing it to flow backwards through time. Think a bullet exiting the wall it had been lodged in and flying backwards through the air to land back in the chamber of the gun or a car chase flowing in reverse. It’s difficult to visualise when you read it but rest assured Nolan does his best at capturing the mind boggling and making it visually plausible. There are a few spots where this device begins to strain that plausibility, but by the time you reach these moments you’ll likely be far too confused to worry much about them. The journey of the “Protagonist” eventually puts him on a path towards Russian billionaire Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), a man who may know the most about this mysterious technology, and his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), forcing him to enlist the help of colleague Neil (Robert Pattinson) to infiltrate the shadowy organisation Sator controls and unlock the secret to time inversion.

As with all of Nolan’s work, Tenet is incredibly well made, from the set designs and costuming which gives the whole affair a real spy movie flair – like some kind of sci-fi-tinged James Bond film – right through to the top tier effects, a lot of which are practical this time around. Where the film does employ special effects to render its time inverted sequences, it does so to jaw dropping effect. Buildings that have exploded piece themselves back together from the wreckage with rubble flying upwards and flames shooting back into explosions, freezing instead of burning in their reversed state. It should come as no surprise to anyone that has seen a Nolan film before and while the effects never reach the spellbinding highs of Inception, there are some incredibly inventive scenes that deserve a spot in Nolan’s highlight real. Another central pillar to any Nolan film is the score and in-demand composer Ludwig Goransson (known for his work on Black Panther and The Mandalorian) does not disappoint, delivering a pulse pounding soundtrack worthy of frequent Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer’s lofty standards. Hitting all the right highs and lows, with those blaring horns that Nolan’s films have become synonymous with, Goransson’s score adds that epic flare to almost every scene and will give your eardrums the rattling they have been missing from trips to the cinema.

Unfortunately for Tenet this fantastic score works as something of a double-edged sword. Nolan and his team seem to have made the downright bizarre choice to mix the score in heavily whenever anybody on-screen is talking to maddening effect. It’s not an exaggeration to say that by the halfway point of this meaty epic I had only been able to understand about a quarter of the dialogue that had been spoken. In a film already so complex and exposition-heavy (Nolan has clearly done his homework and wants us to know about all the scientific theories that explain this time inversion concept), it seems like an obvious thing to go quiet on the background noise and music in scenes where facts and theorems that are central to our understanding of the plot are rattled off. Those Inception horns I mentioned earlier are blared constantly during these scenes, leaving you clueless as to what was said to the point where when someone in the film references a piece of dialogue said earlier you’ll have no clue what they are talking about, you just have to take it on faith.

This wouldn’t be the glaring issue that it is if Nolan didn’t feel the need to complicate the story of Tenet to a frankly ridiculous degree. If you’ve seen any time travel film you’ll be fairly well equipped to grasp what you’re about to see. Nevertheless Nolan seems convinced that his take on the concept is something completely groundbreaking when the reality is – apart from some of these inverted action scenes – it is all pretty standard time travel fare. Twisting the story beyond its already confusing time travel elements is the editing, with choppy cuts that don’t seem to blend very well together failing to give you a proper idea of where our characters are in their globe spanning adventure; one minute we’re in India before a quick trip to Italy and then right back to India. It’s something very atypical for Nolan and along with the sound mixing debacle mentioned earlier it’s quite perplexing that these issues weren’t called to attention in the editing bay, especially given the extended delay during the pandemic that would have given ample time to fix these gripes.

Fortunately these issues are mitigated somewhat by excellent performances across the board. John David Washington cements his status as a leading man following a brilliant turn in BlacKkKlansman; as a man thrust into this extremely covert world spy scenario and completely out of his depth, with nothing to rely on but his own wits and judgement over who he chooses to trust. As a surrogate for the audience, the somewhat clueless nature of his character allows Nolan to unload mountains of exposition in a way that doesn’t seem too boring but there’s only so much you can take before it starts to get a little overwhelming. Beyond that, Washington shows a command over the screen reminiscent of his father Denzel, and with a long career ahead of him Tenet will be remembered as one of his best early performances that showcased the promise of this young talent. Pattinson and Debicki both do great with the roles they are given, with Debicki given a bit more to work with as the beaten-down wife of Kenneth Branagh’s tyrannical criminal mastermind. Her exploration of domestic abuse and the burden of not being able to escape Sator as it means leaving her son behind is especially powerful and one of the most engaging emotional relationships throughout the film thanks to her stellar performance. The real highlight here is Branagh, putting on a wild and deranged display as the unhinged Russian with too much confidence in his status for his own good. Branagh steals every scene he is in, playing the character dangerously close to an 80’s action movie villain stereotype but pulling it back in the quieter moments where Sator gets a chance to show his intellect. This is a man three steps ahead of anyone else in the room and in a film so complex the simplicity of the threat he represents is a welcome counterpoint.

Tenet is not Christopher Nolan’s best film, in fact it might not even be in the top 5; but as with his entire filmography it is still an exceptionally well made movie, from its visual flair to its technical impressiveness. The frustrating complexity of the story and the bizarre decision to mix the dialogue in with the score forces the audience to trust the fact that they know where Nolan is taking the story, even if they do not know themselves. Given Nolan’s track record, this isn’t a huge gamble and I won’t exaggerate and say that the sound mixing completely derails the film as the addition of subtitles on future home viewings will likely fix the issue. Nevertheless if you’re going to pay to see this in the cinema – and for a lot of people this will be their first big post-quarantine viewing – you’ll want to understand what you are watching. For a director as precise as Nolan to overlook this, or even worse to do it intentionally is bizarre but Tenet is still an incredibly engaging, inventive film featuring terrific performances from its entire cast that more than earns its spot in Nolan’s incredible body of work.

Tenet stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Himesh Patel, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Kenneth Branagh – In cinemas now.