Love in the time of COVID: Three in-the-moment movie romances for a viral Valentine

By Karen Gordon

So, yeah, it’s Valentine’s Day.  But it’s also the never-ending COVID season, making for, I’d venture, the least romantic Valentine’s Day in the last, I dunno, 500 years? 

Fortunately, there are always the movies to act as timepieces to remind us that people once did things.

Things like, go out for dinner. In a restaurant. With other people. Or say, get on a plane and travel across the country to meet at the top of the Empire State Building and hold hands and maybe even kiss.

Zendaya and John David Washington in Malcolm and Marie

Sigh.

But there have been a few movies released recently that live in the present, that deal with love and romance, including a couple written, shot and released during lockdown.

Here are three that have hit various streaming sites since the start of the new year. 

Palm Springs (Rating: B-plus)

For a lot of us, life feels like we’re living through our own versions of the 1993 Bill Murray-Andie MacDowell rom-com Groundhog Day.

The team behind  the rom-com Palm Springs could not have predicted that their movie would be released almost a year into a pandemic that made every day feel like  we’re stuck in our own version of Groundhog Day.  But there you go.  

Palm Springs is a riff on that now classic movie.

In this case,  Andy Samberg’s Nyles is at a wedding in Palm Springs where he hits it off with the seemingly anti-social and/or cynical sister of the bride, Sarah, (Cristin Milioti). 

What she doesn’t know, is that he’s stuck in a time loop living through this same day for ages and ages. In spite of his efforts to prevent it, she ends up stuck with him in that loop. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

Sure, there are some odd turns in the movie that I’m still trying to work out, but that didn’t diminish the fun.  Even more, to the point in this COVID era, is how this theme of being trapped also speaks to anxiety, depression and that feeling that no matter what you do, you can’t escape yourself.  

The good news is that, in this movie anyway,  there’s a cure for that.

Palm Springs. Directed by Max Barbakow. Written by Andy Siara. Starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Millioti. Now screening on Amazon Prime Canada.

Locked Down (Rating: B-minus)

This is the first of two movies conceived, written and shot during the COVID lockdown. Locked Down is a romantic comedy/heist movie, shot in England.  

Because of the quarantine, Linda and  Paxton (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor respectively) are trapped together in their rather lovely house in London - trapped because they’ve broken up and would rather be apart. 

But the pandemic has made it difficult for them to actually split up, partially because he has money issues and, of course jobs are scarce.   She, on the other hand has a well-paying job, as the London based rep for an American company that she kind of loathes.  

But then a funny thing happens and suddenly she realizes she could pull off a switcheroo that would net her a jewel that would put both of them on easy street.

Locked Down squeezes in a lot of COVID-era issues, from company layoffs, to pot-banging tributes and the quest to learn how to make sourdough bread.  

Shot when COVID protocols allowed for minimal location shooting, the film is amusing partly because it hits on these resonant COVID-tropes.  That and some nice stunt casting, makes this rom-com/heist fun.

Locked Down. Directed by Doug Liman. Written by Steven Knight. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway. Now streaming on Crave.

Malcolm and Marie (Rating: C)

Another movie written and shot in quarantine, this two-hander is the simplest in terms of execution. And, yet, because of the story, it’s also the most complex.  

Producer/director/writer Sam Levinson and Zendaya were both furloughed from working on their TV series Euphoria, thanks to the pandemic, and thought it would be interesting to use the lockdown and its limitations to do something interesting.  

The film features two characters: Marie (Zendaya) and her partner, film director Malcolm (John David Washington). The two are returning from the world premiere of his latest film. 

He’s buzzing with adrenaline, and she’s icy as granite. 

It seems, in his acceptance speech, he forgot to mention her. And considering his movie appears to be partly based on her story, she’s deeply hurt and angry. 

Much of Malcolm and Marie is the two of them talking things out, aka verbally sparring, with some diversions. He goes off on a lengthy rant about how film critics - and one in particular -  generally misinterpret his work, which he resents and worries about. 

Is he just too self-interested to be a true partner? Or is he hoping that he can make her realize that on this night, with so much at stake for him, that he’s not really himself.  

Malcolm and Marie looks gorgeous, and the two actors are beautiful. The film is shot in black and white, which makes it feel like something from another era. 

The dilemma between them is intriguing, all the more so because it starts with something that actually happened to Levinson, who forgot to thank his wife at a movie premiere. (They worked it out). Malcolm and Marie starts well, but very quickly, once the situation has been laid out and discussed, the film veers off in directions that don’t take the characters, or their situation very deep. Without that emotional heft, the film ends up spinning its wheels, and doesn’t take the characters, or us, far enough.

Malcolm and Marie. Written and directed by Sam Levinson. Starring John David Washington and Zendaya. Now streaming on Netflix.