Queen & Slim

Queen & Slim

Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine, Chloe Sevigny

Directed by Melina Matsoukas

"Thank you for this journey, no matter how it ends," are the words spoken by Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) as she offers a prayer during a dinner with Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and two kind-hearted Southerners who took them in.  Truer words were never spoken, as the journey we get to experience with these two characters are filled with tension, suspense, fear, isolation and desperation - but also filled with love, caring, nurturing, unity, and righteous justice.  This journey is epic in the smallest scale, a story that's more timely than ever, and sheds light on the injustices that minorities still face in America decades after the Civil Rights Act.

When we first meet the aforementioned Queen and Slim (whose real names aren't revealed until near the end, and they're actually never even called Queen and Slim in the film), they're on the most awkward first Tinder date ever.  She's a headstrong defense attorney who's extremely standoffish, short-tempered, atheistic and overpowering.  He's a timid, God-fearing, family-loving unassuming man who's too nice for his own good, and someone you can tell easily gets walked over.  After their date, they head home only to be pulled over by a racist cop who's about to do something very evil, but Slim and Queen manage to turn the tables and kill the cop in self-defense, but as Queen is a defense attorney, she knows that they'll be railroaded and so they flee the scene.

As they try to think about their next move, they hop from car to car and home to home, all the way being aided by those who support what they did after seeing the video go viral, and as their journey progresses, they begin to open up to one another and form an odd type of love that's not normal, but wholly theirs.  A love - and two lives - destined for an important legacy.

In the film Queen and Slim are referred to as "the black Bonnie and Clyde," but that's a misnomer: Bonnie and Clyde were ruthless bank robbers, while Queen and Slim are innocent victims of a corrupt and racist police force.  Other reviewers have more associated them with a modern-day Underground Railroad, and I couldn't put it better myself - two African Americans fleeing a corrupt white-led government trying to find a better life as they're aided by like-minded individuals who also hold to their values.  It's tense and suspenseful in the sense that you have no idea - as do they - how their journey will end, but all signs point to an unhappy one, but there's always hope.

Oscar-nominee Daniel Kaluuya does a fine job as Slim, a God-loving man who is always thinking about doing the right thing and would never ever consider killing anyone in cold blood, but unfortunately he's the one who had to make the split-second decision before they were both killed in cold blood.  He has a simple elegance to him that's often overshadowed by his co-star, but in the more quieter moments (like when he's trying to ride a horse), Kaluuya really shines.

Newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith really turns on the talent as Queen, who's the more headstrong of the duo.  She is constantly thinking of their next move, always alert, and extremely distrustful.  We don't fully see why that is until the film progresses, never allowing us to be spoon-fed her awful backstory, but receive it in small pieces that allows time to digest in our stomachs.  She might be new to the acting world, but there'll be big things coming up for her future.

The film is directed by Melina Matsoukas, who's most well-known for directing music videos like Beyonce's "Formation," and you can clearly tell that she started her craft in the music video business.  Several scenes of the fugitives driving is spliced with up-tempo music and edited to look like a music video, and in that sense it really showcases the unique, vivid tapestry of America they traverse through.  Starting in Cleveland, they work their way down to Miami and along the way we're gifted by great cinematography and beautiful landscapes that overshadow the peril our protagonists find themselves in.

If there's one issue I had with the film is with the length of it: 132 minutes.  While the length of a film typically doesn't bother me, there's certain moments in this film that could've either been cut entirely or trimmed down to give a more urgent feel.  The film repeats itself as they start off with driving a car, it running out of gas, them finding a place to hide out, telling them that they need a new car and need to go as soon as possible, and then getting their new drive and leaving.  This repeats a few times, and while it adds to the suspense of the film, the real emotion comes in the quieter moments between Queen and Slim that really sets itself apart, and could've done better with more of those - along with a small side-story that does add to the overarching theme, but here doesn't feel entirely necessary.

Throughout this journey we see the evolution of both Queen and Slim from where they began.  The two couldn't seem to stand one another at first, but as the film progresses they open up to one another about their fears, lives, and emotions, and we see them transform from who they once were.  Slim isn't a pushover, and Queen begins to believe in a higher power, and they both organically grow to care and genuinely love one another in the quieter moments such as when they stop at a ranch and their romantic dance at a local dive bar.  It's these quiet moments that reverberate the loudest, and gives us to characters that we deeply root for and care about, and wonder - along with them - how their journey ends.

Moreso a modern day Underground Railroad tale than Bonnie and Clyde, "Queen and Slim" offers a compelling narrative that's more relevant today than ever, supplied by two impeccable performances that transforms their characters before our eyes.

The Score: A