111
Heigl, left, and Chalke go ’80sZendaya and Washington: The course of true love never did run smoothMALCOLM & MARIE LOOKS FANTASTIC,
a black-and-white retro-mod reverie as
cushiony as an Eames lounge chair. It fea-
tures terrifi c actors —Zendaya and John
David Washington—who also happen to
be movie-star gorgeous. And one scene,
set against perhaps the most romantic
piece of music ever performed, the Duke
Ellington and John Coltrane version of
Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” ra-
diates a sensual elegance that’s rare in
movies today. How could a picture with
so much going for it go so terribly wrong?
Written and directed by Sam Levin-
son (creator of HBO’s Euphoria),
Malcolm & Marie takes place over a
few nighttime hours as an arrogant but
perhaps talented fi lmmaker, Malcolm
(Washington), fi elds the unruly anger
of his girlfriend Marie (Zendaya) as he
waits for the reviews to roll in following
the premiere of his latest chef d’oeuvre.
The minute the two set foot in their hip,
minimalist (rented) Malibu house, you
know there’s trouble in paradise. Mal-
colm, still high on the evening’s festivi-
ties, prattles on about his prodigious
talent and complains about white crit-
ics who twist themselves in knots to see
racial politics in every movie he makes.
Meanwhile, Marie—still draped in theMOVIES
Who’s afraid of Malcolm & Marie?slinky column of a dress she wore to the
premiere—drifts to the stove like an ex-
quisite zombie and starts rustling up
some late-night mac ’n’ cheese. Before
she opens her mouth, you see the fury
behind her eyes. She’s about to let Mal-
colm have it, and it won’t be pretty.
The fi rst third of Malcolm & Marie
has some wit and verve, but that bliss is
short-lived. The heart of Marie’s com-
plaint is that Malcolm has stolen her
story for his movie—she’s a recover-
ing drug addict who has struggled with
mental- health issues. Levinson has
ripped quite a few rock ’em–sock ’em
pages from John Cassavetes as well as
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the
couple’s fi ghting is circular in a way that
courts only boredom. Zendaya is saddled
with the tedious role of the brainy beauty
who’s also “ diffi cult”—yet men can’t re-
sist her! Somehow, though, Zen daya still
dazzles. As she surveys Malcolm through
her half- lowered mermaid lids, her
storm-cloud mood seems perfectly rea-
sonable. She speaks a subterranean truth
that the movie just can’t reach with its
words. —STEPHANIE ZACHAREKMALCOLM & MARIE streams on
Netfl ix starting Feb. 5TELEVISION
The passionate
friends
Two 14-year-old neighbors
become fast friends. Tully is
wild, driven, gorgeous, mag-
netic, but fundamentally sad,
with a burned-out hippie mom
who sleeps all day. Awkward,
nerdy Kate has a loving family
and an innocent sweetness
that follows her well into adult-
hood. Firefly Lane, adapted
from Kristin Hannah’s best-
selling 2008 novel, traces their
relationship from junior high
in the 1970s to middle age,
when Tully (played as an adult
by Katherine Heigl) is a famous,
lonely talk-show host and Kate
(Sarah Chalke) tries to restart
her journalism career as her
marriage falls apart.
Like the book, this drama
is unabashedly sentimental—
think This Is Us but for
friendship, complete with
frequent tears and story lines
set in decades past. If you’re
looking for objects of ridicule,
you’ll easily fi nd them: bad
wigs, mawkish needle drops,
obvious plot twists. Yet despite
its limitations, the show pairs
nicely with a glass of wine;
lead performances that avoid
histrionics help, as does the
genuine warmth of the material.
Firefly may not be a sharp,
dazzling Tully, but sometimes
a tender, unpretentious
Kate makes better company
anyway. —J.B.FIREFLY LANE arrives on
NETFLIX (2)Netfl ix on Feb. 3