Queen & Slim is a fascinating series of thematic vignettes, and even though I don’t think they’re all strung together in the most natural way, I was riveted by the journey that the film took me on. While there are comparisons to be made to films like Bonnie and Clyde, Queen & Slim takes the runaway chase movie in a new direction as its characters are forced to deal with their impending legacy in real time. There are familiar notes that are similar to other films dealing with police brutality, but the film really excels due to the chemistry between the two leads, who are working through an awkward point in a relationship.
Ernest “Slim” Hines (Daniel Kaluuya) is a working class man who has an impromptu dinner date with Angela “Queen” Johnson (Jodi Turner-Smith), a successful lawyer who is reeling from her client’s upcoming death sentence. The two clash on their date and begin to argue, but once the pair is pulled over by a belligerent white cop, the situation escalates and this unlikely duo must go on the run. In their journey between safe havens, Queen and Slim realize they’ve become the face of a movement and question what their new responsibilities are now that they’re nationally recognized fugitives.
While there’s a clear goal in that the two plan to flee the country to Cuba, the film is structured in a way that allows for different side stories to exist. Each new location Queen and Slim enter shows a different side of the social fabric, be it a conversation with a suspicious car mechanic, a trip to visit Queen’s uncle, a safe house with a sympathetic white couple, or a night at a dance club, and seeing so many different characters voice their perspectives makes for a road journey that never gets dull. Even if many of these situations are coincidentally connected and don’t have much bearing on each other, the story is able to progress through the growing media coverage and the mythologizing of Queen and Slim.
The series of smaller stories is the film’s strength, but it also poses some narrative constraints. While we feel the pressure that Queen and Slim are under through their desperation to keep moving, the forces pursuing them are never visualized and often only alluded to. There’s some terrific sequences of tension in which the two must avoid police forces, but it’s never really clear how the cops have tracked them or where they are in relation. The subdivided nature of the story can also make for some weird tonal shifts; after one sequences of unbearable suspense in which Queen and Slim escape a seemingly safe area, the film meanders for awhile before reaching the climax.
There are moments that drag, but the performances never falter. Daniel Kaluuya does a great job at showing Slim’s discomfort with the entire situation; he doesn’t have Queen’s legal expertise and is so focused on survival that he rarely looks towards the future, and seeing Slim reflect on the wisdom of his family in dark moments gives the film a lot of pathos. However, it’s Jodi Turner-Smith’s performance that steals the film. Turner Smith plays Queen as a character who is purposefully obtuse; she puts on a specific persona and has an acute understanding of the implications of their actions, and as she gets increasingly close to Slim across the course of the story, she’s able to disclose details on the events that shaped her and her feelings on justice and law.
It’s also interesting because these characters know very little about each other, and are in many ways resistant towards opening up to each other. The inciting incident forever combined their legacy, and seeing two very different people cope with being linked forever by their shared experience makes for a lot of interesting character development. At best the film finds the beauty in small moments, and at its worst its meandering and seems too all encompassing in its attempt to link different events, but I never lost sight of these characters and the stage in their relationship. Provocative and shocking, Queen & Slim is a film that is sure to spark conversation, and for good reason. Grade: B