Film Review - Queen and Slim (15)

Thank you for this journey, no matter how it ends.

Each filmic calendar year is a combo of the 'Most Anticipated' (which may or may not live up to expectation) and those movies that jump you from out of nowhere. Queen and Slim, feature debut from TV and music video director Melina Matsoukas, ambushed me that way last weekend. I'd seen the poster, but it gave me little idea what to expect - aside perhaps from something pretty cool. As it turns out, 'cool' doesn't begin to express what this movie has to offer.

Film newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya are the Queen and Slim in question, two contrasting souls, who meet on a less than successful Tinder date. The night gets momentously worse, however, when he drives her home and they're pulled over by a cop. A tense encounter escalates wildly out of control and when disaster occurs, these virtual strangers end up on the run together, the objects of a nationwide police hunt. But as the odd couple head for the southern border, they realise something has been triggered that goes far beyond their own perilous situation.

I've used the phrase 'film for our time' already this year, but sue me if it doesn't apply to this one. If 2018's The Hate U Give was an intelligent teen-aimed exploration of racial tensions in modern America, Queen and Slim is the grown-up version in more ways than one.  Described early on as 'the black Bonnie and Clyde', these title characters are a far cry from all that those monikers imply. They're unassuming types, whose lives are irreversibly transformed by a single and calamitous moment in time. Victims of a racial climate that extends well outside themselves, their instantly high media profile feeds back into the conflict. To some they're criminals, to others heroes in a vital political struggle - even though to us they're just two ordinary people dealing with the fallout of a uniquely disastrous first date.

As the not-quite-lovers-on-the-run Turner-Smith and Kaluuya both excel. It's a smart move to have them not connect initially, so that the trauma and exhaustion from their altered circumstances is further complicated by how much they plain irritate each other. Ironically it's their enforced road trip that allows them time to discover each other properly. The melting of acrimony, rising tide of erotic feeling and embracing of the moment (in more ways than the purely sexual) are all played with a conviction that's total and touching. Kaluuya's depth and range is already cinematically tested (check him also in Black Panther or Widows), but ex-model Turner-Smith matches him, her inital poise and aloofness gradually ebbing away till vulnerability and a new passion for life are revealed.

There are further memorable performances here, most notably Bokeen Woodbine as Queen's flamboyant Uncle Earl. However the other main player is the look and mood of the film itself. While the screenplay by Lena Waithe is by turns romantic, comedic and provocative, the overall word that strikes is 'haunting'. Queen and Slim is a gorgeously shot road movie, all grainy beauty courtesy of cinematographer Tat Radcliffe. It begins with a diner scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting and loses none of that stillness as the story progresses. Much of the journey is shot in pale dawn or twilight, evoking a weird limbo between the couple's erased former lives and their possible capture. There are moments of high tension, but this journey is characterised more as a poignant dream-state. Queen and Slim aren't alone in their struggle, but the border - their only hope - seems frustratingly out of reach...

The story's pacing is maybe a touch too deliberate in the latter stages, but this flaw is minor in light of Matsoukas' first-feature achievement. Both complex and confrontational, her film is an affecting drama, a political slap in the face and a work of art reminiscent of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight - in both its muted aesthetics and mesmerising orchestral score. (There's a kick-ass soundtrack too, accompanying the unplanned roadtrip.) In a winter movie-season more about big-name Oscar contenders, I found myself enamoured by this new cinematic pretender. Queen and Slim is a hugely promising debut, but it's also a fine film in its own right.

Gut Reaction: Lulled by the hypnotic beauty much of the time, although some moments of this film had me almost literally on my back.

Memorable Moment: Dance on. You're among friends.

Ed's Verdict: 8.5/10. Essentially relevant subject-matter - often powerfully and exquisitely made. Another film that deserved attention from Oscar and Co but didn't get it. Why not, people? What's that about?