Zendaya and John David Washington in Malcolm & Marie . Photo: Dominic Miller/Netflix Malcolm and Marie may be the only two people who appear onscreen in Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie , but an unseen third character looms nearly as large. She’s a film critic for the Los Angeles Times — “the white lady from the L.A. Times ,” in the parlance of the script — whose every action inspires teeth-gnashing anguish in John David Washington’s Malcolm. First, she praises his film at its premiere, but only compares him to other Black directors. Then she writes a positive review, but in terms he feels have more to do with signaling her own progressive politics than genuinely grappling with the work. Finally, she suggests that Malcolm’s handling of his female protagonist is marked by the male gaze, a critique that inspires one of the film’s many, many monologues. “You can’t hang everything on identity,” he says. “You can’t say that I brilliantly subverted this trope ’cause I’m … [Read more...] about Talking to the Film Critic Who (Maybe) Inspired