Queen and Slim – Review

Queen and Slim

Directed by: Melina Matsoukas

Runtime: 132 minutes

Road movies are one of my favourite sub-genre of film. Thelma and Louise formed the blueprint of my personality. If I see a vintage car in a poster or a trailer, my butt is on the seat and my eyes are glued to the screen. Queen and Slim is fully infused with road movie energy, plus it is a love story, a crime story and, perhaps, a civil rights story. However, do these beats actually land? It’s a complex answer.

The premise of Queen and Slim is this: on their first date, Cynical Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and laidback Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), two young black Americans, are forced to kill a cop in self-defence. Understanding the repercussions of their actions and fearing the death penalty, they go on the run in hopes of crossing the border and evading capture.

I’ll speak first on what I actually enjoyed about the film. Tat Radcliffe’s cinematography was simply beautiful. Sumptuous and stylish, he worked to capture black bodies in a way that is only beginning to creep into mainstream cinema.

Of course, under the direction of Melina Matsoukas (known for directing Beyonce’s Formation music video), this is no surprise. Matsoukas’ vision was the cohesive pulse that drove the entire film. It’s not difficult to see her ideas infused into every element of the film, from the excellent soundtrack to the editing choices. It is her yearning to tell a fundamentally black story right that made this film bearable.

Furthermore, Turner-Smith and Kaluuya as the title characters were phenomenal. Charismatic, and believable, these two weren’t so much acting as they were literally wrenching emotions out of the audience. I can only remain thankful that such talented actors were brought on to play these roles as they were certainly given the short end of the stick with the script for Queen and Slim.

Ah. My one grievance, which is unfortunately a big one. The script.

It would be hard to say that I went into Queen and Slim ignorant of the criticism that has often been levelled at screenwriter Lena Waithe, but I resolved to go into the cinema with an open mind and an open heart. I believe I did, but it would be remiss of me to sing the praises of this film without critically discussing the handling of this important story, which I will in further, spoilery depth in another piece. However, without giving anything away, I felt the script over relied on convenient plot developments in its goal to get its characters from point A to B. Combined with hard to digest dialogue and empty secondary characters, the script comes across as boring and oftentimes lazy.

Furthermore, its clear that Waithe is trying to make a statement about Black America, the modern civil rights movement and lives of everyday Black Americans, but she fails. Through every minute of the film we are bombarded by anti-Black cliché after cliché without a shred of subtlety and nuance. Matsoukas might have attempted to make a film that centred the black gaze but she was fighting a losing battle with Waithe writing a film that simply did the opposite. This becomes so evident when one finishes the film and simply considers the sheer amount of gratuitous violence that the Black bodies on screen faced.

I can concede that what I’m suggesting sounds impossible: how can a Black writer write anti-Black narratives? I implore you to engage with my coming piece on the topic. It is very much possible.

Regardless, I encourage you to watch Queen and Slim. Based on the performances and direction alone, you will enjoy yourself. But do it critically, because while I believe that cinema has no inherent responsibility to make a political statement, I also believe that when a film chooses to take on that challenge, then the onus is on the filmmaker to avoid replicating that harm.