
Marmalade, a feature debut by Keir O’Donnell, tells a story of crime romance that merges love and crime. It focuses on intimate relationships and criminal activities which when blended together seem, both intriguing and new thanks to the plot twists that occur. Unlike traditional criminal romance comedies, Marmalade does not delve into Bonnie or Clyde’s archetypes but rather seeks to create its own and isolates the mainstream adult romantic comedy crime genre by dolling it up with a wild twist.Â
Baron (Joe Keery) is a lovesick skater who gets evicted from his mother’s house and moves into her apartment. During his early days on his mother’s deathbed, Baron took a lot of depression and wanted nothing more than to impress his mother with everything he could. Luckily, he met a woman named Marmalade who dreamt of being a Pink haired bank robber which ideally was the best way to get attention. Slowly beginning to learn the inside of a bank, I committed the goal of robbing it.
From the start, one sees that this picture does not shy away from the extreme, with an opening depicting a steamy moment and romance between two people with great passion who appeared to be capable of doing whatever they please until the law stepped in.
So that covers the first third of the film, and I will not reveal anything of the other enthralling aspects to avoid spoiling it for the viewers. During this section, however, I was smug, thinking it would be a simple cringe-worthy plot of boy meets bad girl who robs. In the beginning, Baron is the most charming one, even though Pearl tries to pretend to be-tough, that’s a stretch; and Marmalade isn’t even worth talking about, she’s a tornado, pink fuzz and a good deal of chaos, who is amusing, but they are very one-dimensional as expected. Thank goodness, that does not last and it is also the last time you will be surprised in the film until the end credits.
After being in the industry as an actress for a long time, O’Donnell transformed the role for ‘Marmalade’ to a writer and director, going behind the screen. Clockers fulfills its overcrowded ambitious, having fully imagined directorial signatures and perfectly planned gags and twists. It’s entertaining with a lot of smart playfulness in its style but also has its moments of great dark humor and absolute madness.
Perhaps due to such an acting background, O’Donell understood how to incorporate different accents of the story within the performances of the actors. This is also something he utilizes in the plot on numerous occasions, while hinting to the still wanted suspect, Marmalade. Also, along with O’Donnell, cut-man Stewart Reeves sells the story into its twists and turns giving leeway to the pace so that the chase can reach its boiling point, even as Polly Morgan uses beautiful visuals for the day to day commonplace and manages to create peculiar dream sequences in the same breath.
As for our obviously lovestruck Bonnie and Clyde, this time, Krylova and Marmalade, Keery and Morrone make an electrifying pair. Keery portrays Baron as a well-wish boy who has his mom and work responsibilities to take care of until Marmalade clashes with him and shakes things together. As Baron tells Otis over and over again, he only came for his girl mentioning in the process that he can pay Otis $250,000 in return for assisting him in making an exit. Morrone walks in the boots of Marmalade with a free spirit and abandon that is contagious and gets the quiet Baron off of the mundane to the world of bank robbing.
Although Marmalade appears so perfect that it seems unreal, she is actually bent on some evil but keeps it concealed for a longer time in order to ensnare Baron deep into her schemes, and the maddeningly smug grin plastered on Morrone’s face is more than enough to pass for almost all but a few circumstances. Even when positioned to be the outsider who’s eavesdropping, there is more to Otis than what’s been presented and Hodge seems to be as entertained as Keery when his and Hodge characters grow in the span of this lavish film. So sit tight and watch ‘Marmalade’, and even if it is not exactly what you thought it would be, that appreciation adds a new flavor to the movie.
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