It’s no surprise that Hollywood has been itching to get back to work after its closure earlier last year due to the global-pandemic, COVID-19. Some production companies have yet to get back into the swing of things while others seem to have never taken a step away from the camera (socially-distanced, of course).
With only a limited number of cast and crew being allowed on set, directors and producers like as Euphoria’s Sam Levinson sought to continue to create films that perfectly capture what it’s like to be enclosed in a somewhat suffocating space for a prolonged period of time, films that I like to call, Quarantined-Themed.
Malcolm and Marie premiered on Netflix and a few local theaters earlier last week and many viewers automatically resonated with the reality of being stuck in a house going stir-crazy with someone completely despise…or love.
Film lovers anticipated this rollout of 2021 films that have director’s “I created this to keep from going insane from isolation” all over it, however, are quarantined-themed films a genius work of art or a semi-lazy way for filmmakers to stay relevant?
Though Malcolm and Marie is shot beautifully and includes some jaw-dropping acting from Zendaya and John David Washington (someone say ‘Oscar-nominated’?), many viewers and reviewers agree that the film falls short on having an actual plot or story.
Scoring a critic-score of 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, film critic Jeffrey Lyles from Lyles’ Movie Files states, “Squanders exceptional performances from Zendaya and Washington by failing to offer enough incentive for viewers to stay engaged long before the winner is settled.”; giving the film a 5 out of 10.
It doesn’t stop there.
Locked Down also had its fair share of critiques as the film manages to receive a critic score of 45% and an audience score of 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic David Sims from The Atlantic states, “While Locked Down is an undoubtedly fascinating pop-culture curio, it’s also sloppy and cringe-inducing, and feels like it was made in a hurry.”
“Made in a hurry” seems to be the common denominator from most Twitter users who also watched the film.
Perhaps, the issue does not lie in the film-industry’s inability to create the blockbusters that it once created pre-COVID-19 nor the film-industry’s creation of films revolving around pandemics and quarantine. After all, we’ve had some pretty great films about these topics much before the 2020 global-pandemic. I Am Legend and Train to Busan to name a few.
Perhaps the issue lies in Hollywood’s out of touch way of truly encapsulating what it means to be in a pandemic as a normal person who most likely never lived through a pandemic before.
Lonely, scary, and anxiety-inducing are just a few words that can truly attest to what it feels like to be quarantined. These words are the complete opposite of the tones of 2021’s first rollout of quarantined-themed films, Malcolm and Marie and Locked Down.
However, it is still too early to tell if quarantined-themed films will be a masterpiece memory that we will one day look back on fondly or a thing of the past that will fade out with no recollection.
After all, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival seems to have approved of some highly-rated quarantined-themed indie films including The Pink Cloud (having a current score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes) and The Dog That Wouldn’t Be Quiet, an Argentine-drama also with a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Maybe we have not yet seen the best of these films. Maybe we have. Maybe, just maybe, the best quarantined-themed film is being created as we speak.
It is simply too early to tell.
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