Rating: 15
Cast: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman and Michael Potts
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Written by Ruben-Santiago Hudson
Length: 94mins

The story of blues singer Ma Rainey and her accompanying band, director George C. Wolfe draws the audience into a dramatic and tension-filled portrayal of a recording session in 1927. Covering themes of racism, ambition and power almost exclusively under one roof for the entire runtime, Wolfe’s story may be simple in terms of locations, but it’s wider considerations are much greater.

The winner of a Tony Award for his achievements as a stage director in the 90’s, Wolfe clearly still utilises similar techniques when it comes to his film direction. In the basement of a recording studio, where the band prepares for Ma Rainey’s arrival, tensions rise between leading performers Levee (Boseman) and Cutler (Domingo). Fast-paced and brilliantly written dialogue explodes between the two as their conversation ebbs and flows, with the topic at hand ranging from the way they’ll be playing a certain song to the effects of childhood trauma in what feels like a single breath.This strength is maintained throughout almost the entire runtime, with some great moments of conflict generating primarily as a result of both the dialogue and the performances. 

Speaking of performances, it’s no secret that Chadwick Boseman provides possibly the greatest acting of his career in this film. As soon as we set eyes on him within a scene, the whole film just feels more exciting and interesting. Extensive pieces of dialogue which he tackles with confidence and energy unlike any other performance I’ve seen recently create a clear sense of his character as a real person. Their fears, conflicts and loves all bring themselves to the surface just within his visual performance alone. 

It’s a testament to Boseman’s acting abilities that he is seemingly getting a little more praise than his co-star Viola Davis, as her performance within this film is brilliant as well. The characteristics of her ‘Ma Rainey’ seem to directly oppose that of Boseman’s ‘Levee,’ with the former often appearing more in control of her emotions until moments of sudden energy which reinforce her status as a character who is trying their best to maintain control of their environment.

Despite the strength of the performances in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, as well as the oftentimes well-written dialogue, it doesn’t feel like a film which will go down as one of the greats. In particular, the editing can often feel quite jarring, with a style employed which frequently changes between shots in a way that can feel unnecessary, and only stunts the dialogue which is being delivered. As well as this, moments of the story can feel unnecessary or unmotivated by the scene which it finds itself in. Of course, in real life not everything has a clear explanation, but within ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, particular storylines are sometimes not entirely explored to their full potential, whilst others reach their conclusion without warning. However, this is not to say there aren’t some incredibly thought-provoking scenes, with the final conclusion of the film being simply heartbreaking.

All in all, I would definitely recommend giving ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ a watch. It has some phenomenal performances, the music is great, and sometimes it’s just nice to see a relatively new release and imagine yourself back in the cinema.

Rating: 15
Cast: Zendaya and John David Washington
Directed by Sam Levinson
Written by Sam Levinson
Length: 106mins

A lockdown-created film by Sam Levinson, a director who’s best known for his writing and directing on ‘Euphoria,’ – a TV series that brilliantly tells the story of a drug-addicted teenager played by Zendaya, and her battle to get clean for the sake of herself and her family –  ‘Malcolm and Marie’ follows the aftermath of a director and his wife as they return home from the premiere of Malcolms (John David Washingtons) debut film which tells the story of a drug-addicted teenager, which Marie (Zendaya) struggles to come to terms with, as she believes the film is based on her life. Essentially, all you need to know going into ‘Malcolm and Marie’ is that Sam Levinson is telling an autobiographical story of his experiences creating a show like ‘Euphoria’ and releasing it to the public. 

As there aren’t too many good things to focus on with this film, I’ll try and get those out of the way to begin with. Zendaya and John David Washington both give brilliant performances, achieving the wide range of emotions that litter ‘Malcolm and Marie’ with depth and honesty. You can feel their struggle to work things out and express themselves through the way that these two actors visually perform in a more sincere and genuine way than any of the writing allows. The visuals are pretty decent too, I can understand the choice for using a black and white colour tone, but it does little to benefit the film other than to establish that this will be a fairly dramatic story. It also meets the required length of a feature film, which is a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask. 

If you read almost anyone’s reviews on this film, you will probably hear fairly negative things, and for good reason. Abandoning any sense of romanticism, Sam Levinson seems to have only created ‘Malcolm and Marie’ to complain about how critics didn’t understand his previous work, and that his success is entirely independent of anyone else, which is ironic given both how badly this film has been received, and the fact that he’s the son of a Best Picture-winning director, meaning he’s probably not as self-made as he claims. Utilising John David Washington’s character as the mouthpiece for his dissatisfaction, Levinson complicates his complaints by approaching them from a race angle, which just feels slightly strange. Of course, though not entirely advisable, ‘Malcolm and Marie’ is definitely not the first time a white writer has written about the struggles of POC, but when presenting a character that is so clearly a reflection of one’s self, Levinson just comes across as assumptious and ignorant. Perhaps the strangest part of all however, is that the topic of discussion within the film is so clearly made out to be ‘Euphoria,’ and yet that show isn’t a critical failure at all. In fact, I would probably describe it as a masterclass in storytelling around teen anxiety and drug abuse. The cinematography is perhaps the greatest of any show I’ve ever seen, and all twelve episodes push the boundaries of what TV should be. 

‘Malcolm and Marie’ is a film created under the restraints of our current COVID restrictions, which makes sense given that it’s a single-location film with relatively simplistic camerawork and lighting, as well as only two on-screen characters. Essentially just one long conversation, the film is almost entirely unsuccessful in maintaining any sort of interest or emotional investment in either of the characters or their issues. Once again, this seems unusual as only two months ago Levinson wrote and directed an hour long episode of ‘Euphoria’ which took place in almost entirely identical conditions, and was one of the greatest pieces of television made in 2020. If Levinson’s name wasn’t embarrassingly placed on the end credits of this film, I would find it very hard to believe that he had any involvement at all.

All in all, I would say to avoid watching ‘Malcolm and Marie’ There is great acting, but aside from that the gratuitous hour-and-forty-minutes runtime is nowhere near worth it. I’ve barely touched on the story, and that’s essentially because it just isn’t interesting. It’s a story that never needed telling in the way it did, and I can only hope that this is an unfortunate anomaly in Sam Levinson’s career.