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Queen & Slim
A racially charged crime drama blends with a one of a kind romance in 2019's Queen & Slim, a riveting drama whose relevance in this "Black Lives Matter" world we live in is no coincidence.
This is the story of a black couple on their first date after meeting on Tinder. On their way home, what appears to be a routine traffic stop by a white cop results in the death of the cop and sending this pair of virtual strangers on the run together.
Director Melina Matsoukas employs a dreamy quality to the execution of this story that probably is a little overprotective of the central characters, but makes the viewer fall in love with them pretty much from jump and wanting them to find a way out of this seemingly hopeless situation. There might be an impulse to re-watch the incident that sets this whole story in motion to see if there is any legal recourse for this couple, but as the story progresses, we realize that what happened with that cop has become irrelevant before the halfway point of the film and has nothing to do with the pair becoming the most wanted fugitives in Florida and folk heroes at the same time.
We've seen films like Badlands and Thelma and Louise that remind us of what happens here, but Lana Waithe's screenplay adds a couple of twists that give this story originality. First of all, I LOVED that she made the female character an attorney. I loved that this woman knew the law and knew exactly how much danger they were in at all times, despite the mistakes she makes at the beginning of the story. I also loved the fact that these two people were on their first date and their lives are linked forever by this tragedy. I also loved that around the halfway point of the story when they are given a little room to breathe, they decide to resume their date, which slowly and believably blossoms into a tentative romance. It was also impressive that even though they were black, there were white people who wanted to help these two in their situation. Equally frightening was how quickly the authorities were on to them despite their head start. The story also takes a couple of strange detours during the final act that slow things down when they should really be accelerating.
Daniel Kaluuya once again commands the screen the way he did in Get Out and Jodie Turner-Smith brings an eloquent strength to her star-making performance as well. Kudos as well to Bokeem Woodbine's flashy performance as the girl's uncle and to Chloe Sevigny and Flea as the Shepherds. It goes on a little longer than it needs to and the conclusion is unnecessarily brutal and unfair after the journey we've been taken on, but it's well worth watching.
A racially charged crime drama blends with a one of a kind romance in 2019's Queen & Slim, a riveting drama whose relevance in this "Black Lives Matter" world we live in is no coincidence.
This is the story of a black couple on their first date after meeting on Tinder. On their way home, what appears to be a routine traffic stop by a white cop results in the death of the cop and sending this pair of virtual strangers on the run together.
Director Melina Matsoukas employs a dreamy quality to the execution of this story that probably is a little overprotective of the central characters, but makes the viewer fall in love with them pretty much from jump and wanting them to find a way out of this seemingly hopeless situation. There might be an impulse to re-watch the incident that sets this whole story in motion to see if there is any legal recourse for this couple, but as the story progresses, we realize that what happened with that cop has become irrelevant before the halfway point of the film and has nothing to do with the pair becoming the most wanted fugitives in Florida and folk heroes at the same time.
We've seen films like Badlands and Thelma and Louise that remind us of what happens here, but Lana Waithe's screenplay adds a couple of twists that give this story originality. First of all, I LOVED that she made the female character an attorney. I loved that this woman knew the law and knew exactly how much danger they were in at all times, despite the mistakes she makes at the beginning of the story. I also loved the fact that these two people were on their first date and their lives are linked forever by this tragedy. I also loved that around the halfway point of the story when they are given a little room to breathe, they decide to resume their date, which slowly and believably blossoms into a tentative romance. It was also impressive that even though they were black, there were white people who wanted to help these two in their situation. Equally frightening was how quickly the authorities were on to them despite their head start. The story also takes a couple of strange detours during the final act that slow things down when they should really be accelerating.
Daniel Kaluuya once again commands the screen the way he did in Get Out and Jodie Turner-Smith brings an eloquent strength to her star-making performance as well. Kudos as well to Bokeem Woodbine's flashy performance as the girl's uncle and to Chloe Sevigny and Flea as the Shepherds. It goes on a little longer than it needs to and the conclusion is unnecessarily brutal and unfair after the journey we've been taken on, but it's well worth watching.