Writer and director Sam Levinson’s newest Netflix movie “Malcolm & Marie” unveils an agonizing execution of truth concerning relationships, filmmaking and society. 

Starring John David Washington and Oakland native Zendaya, the movie begins as the couple enter their Malibu home. Washington plays Malcolm, a filmmaker, and Zendaya plays Marie, the muse for his latest film.

Disrupting the sound of crickets chirping, the audience is introduced to headlights pulling into the driveway: the calm before the storm.

The two have arrived home from Malcolm’s debut film premiere based on Marie’s life of drug addiction. Although viewers are intentionally left out of scenes from the red carpet and the after party, they have not missed the action that’s soon to come. 

Jazz music fills the air as Malcolm dances circles around their contemporary home. The mood should be light and jubilant, but Marie’s morose expressions and short responses hint she has a diverging intention for the night. 

Though “Malcolm & Marie” premiered on Feb. 5, conveniently before Valentine’s Day, this is not a love story. 

Rather, Levinson offers audiences an emotionally exhausting glimpse into the reality of a romantic relationship gone awry.

Every step and stir in making boxed mac and cheese for Malcom shows Marie’s deep unhappiness and soon she rips into what is supposed to be a celebratory evening. 

The jazz music spikes and arguments erupt. If words can kill, Malcolm and Marie are trained assassins, both with a refined and creative lexicon in their artillery. 

Verbal bullets fly throughout the house as they follow each other from room to room. Cruel words and anecdotes of the past serve as their weapons of choice. 

Deeply personal and intimate moments are used as ammunition and thrown back and forth in the heat of their verbal brawl.

In between the cutthroat saga of teetering jabs, Malcolm periodically hurls himself back into his own preoccupation with the looming film review by a critic only referred to as “the white woman from the LA Times.” 

Passionate rants touch on the absurdity and frustration of film critics searching for a deeper meaning, particularly with a racial or political motivation. 

Malcolm dives into his premature annoyance of film critics who interpreted his film as a focus on race instead of the plight of a young woman struggling with drugs. 

With the glamour of their evening attire wearing off, Malcolm and Marie are stripped down to the brutal truth. 

Honest feelings about his film, their relationship, and each other’s pasts act as dirty laundry being laid out to dry. 

The most pivotal scene occurs when Marie is in a still bathtub taking in a harangue of criticism. 

This scene is enough to make any viewer wonder about their own capabilities to hurt the one they love. 

The two use vulnerable secrets they’ve shared against one another to inflict pain, as well as the unknown bits of information they’ve hidden because they know it would press every button.

Despite being shot entirely in 35mm black and white film, the imaginative angle shots and roaming camera work provide all the color and rhythm a story like this needs. 

Levinson, creator of the HBO series Euphoria, devises a poetic explosion of stimulating aesthetics. 

 The clash of their modern home serves as their battleground and the timelessness afforded by the brilliant decision to film without color forms a  fine line between transformative conflict and borderline toxicity. This aspect is explored throughout the film.

The film was shot in the span of two weeks during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the SF Chronicle’s Feb. 7 Datebook. Despite the short production time, viewers reap the sensation of a seamless night-long debacle in which they become flies on the wall.Watching from the sidelines, they experience the best and worst moments of Malcolm and Marie’s romantic reckoning.

“Malcolm & Marie” persists much like the jazz music that follows their seemingly never-ending night. There’s moments of intensity, moments of ease and moments of complete unpredictability.

John David Washington and Zendaya accomplish a magnetically engaging performance. The coolness of the jazz background and the next-level-artistry involved in the making of this not-so-love story illustrate a cinematic success and an instant classic.