Malcolm Ex
2024 · 10m · USA
Directed by Free Man Agyapong
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: dark, darkly comic
A man learns his new lover's ex-boyfriend bears a striking resemblance to Malcolm X — whom his best friend reveres — and his jealousy spirals into full paranoia. A beach-day hangout becomes a low-key psychological undertow.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A jealousy spiral triggered by a Malcolm X lookalike is the kind of premise that has no business working — and the monochrome handheld treatment sells it. Sign me up.
Handheld monochrome paranoia where the trigger is the ex-boyfriend resembling Malcolm X — and his best friend being a fan. That's a strange, specific jealousy engine I haven't seen before.
Handheld monochrome paranoia where the trigger is the ex looking like Malcolm X and the best friend being a fan — the specificity of that jealousy spiral is the whole conceit. Insecurity-meets-cultural-icon is novel territory.
Reviews
Moving briskly with its handheld monochromatic look, the film is a surprising but effective anecdote of early love and paranoia.