Review: Queen & Slim is a love story born out of police violence

Queen & Slim, the feature film debut from director Melina Matsoukas, who helmed Beyoncé’s game-changing “Formation” video as well as the moving “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None, is being referred to as the “black Bonnie and Clyde,” but it is really so much more than that.

Written by Lena Waithe (who wrote “Thanksgiving,” becoming the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing for that episode), and in an only-in-Hollywood twist, based off an initial idea by disgraced writer James Frey who gets a “story by” credit here, the film is a starkly beautiful and moving look at racism and systemic violence against young black people, and an unlikely love story about a couple who only truly discover themselves after their world is suddenly uprooted one night.

The film opens on a first Tinder date between Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) at a diner in Ohio. They’re making small talk, and things seem amiable enough, but sparks aren’t exactly flying. Queen is preoccupied — a defense lawyer, a client of hers was recently given the death penalty, which is still legal in Ohio. While leaving the restaurant, they’re pulled over by a cop (country star Sturgill Simpson), and the situation quickly escalates. He asks Slim to exit the vehicle, and things become incredible tense as Queen also exits the car in an attempt to film the incident. When the officer suddenly shoots Queen, a fight breaks out causing the officer to drop his gun, and Slim manages to shoot him in self defense.

Knowing the odds of a fair trial in Ohio, Queen pushes the two of them to go on the lam. They ditch their phones to avoid detection, and begin an overnight drive towards New Orleans, where Queen has an estranged uncle (Bokeem Woodbine) who may be able to put them up.

It says something about the efficiency of the film that all of the above happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie. While the set-up happens in the blink of an eye, once the pair are out on the road, Queen & Slim becomes a very different sort of beast. As one of the most influential music video directors working today, Matsoukas clearly has an eye for spectacular visuals, and the film is filled with beautiful shots of the darkened expanses of the highway, and lush vibrant colors once they reach New Orleans.

As Queen and Slim get further bogged down by their journey, clever editing lends the film a poetic edge; occasionally dialogue seems to float freely throughout the film, no longer synched up to the actor’s mouths. It’s a disorientating tactic at first, but places us in the jumbled minds of the duo as they deliriously adjust to their new reality as fugitives and outlaw heroes.

Queen & Slim works best when it focuses on the two main characters trying to process their dire new circumstances, while also learning to adjust to spending every minute together. Unlike Bonnie & Clyde (a reference a character directly makes in the film), these are not lovers out for kicks by breaking the law (at least not at first). They come to know each other through their endlessly long and lonely hours together, which eventually leads to the start of a relationship.

When we zoom out from the love story, things get a bit murkier. As footage of the cop killing and their escape begins to go viral, it spawns a movement against police brutality in black communities. Immediately recognized wherever they go, the duo become folk heroes, and are helped and sheltered along the way by those who have little sympathy for the violent and racist police forces in their communities. At one demonstration, a young boy who Queen and Slim had interacted with earlier shoots a helping officer dead, a striking act of violence that the film never really wrestles with. Where does hero worship end and violence begin? How much abuse can people take before they rise up against the police forces ruthlessly targeting their communities? In the wake of #BlackLivesMatter, these are all pressing issues that the film skirts around; it knows that vigilante hero worship is a slippery slope, but leaves the morality of it open to interpretation.

As Queen and Slim try to evade the police, they’re sheltered by complicated individuals with their own issues; there’s Queen’s relationship with her uncle, a tightly-wound man living with a number of young women and prone to violent outbursts (their shared backstory might be the most tragic in a film filled with tragedy), and in a feat of perfect hipster casting, Flea and Chloë Sevigny play a suburban couple who put the pair up as a favour to Queen’s uncle.

While the film is bursting with ideas, the thrust is really the blossoming love story between Queen and Slim, which moves at an accelerated pace given the danger they find themselves in. With incredible performances from Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, Queen & Slim is a timely and provocative look at police violence and its affect on black communities. With gorgeous cinematography and a killer soundtrack featuring the likes of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Solange, and Vince Staples, the filmmakers manage to find hope and inspiration in the act of resistance, making Queen & Slim a potent protest film for a whole new generation.