Sunday 8 December 2019

Review: Queen & Slim





Queen & Slim
Cert: 15 / 132 mins / Dir. Melina Matsoukas / Trailer



Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya headline Queen & Slim, a crime thriller from screenwriter Lena Waithe*1 and director Melina Matsoukas. In suburban Ohio, when young Afro-American couple Angela (Jodie-Smith) and Earnest (Kaluuya) are returning from their first date, a traffic-stop by a white patrol officer results in a bad turn of events turning much, much worse. The pair make a hasty decision to flee the scene, beginning a cautious bee-line to Florida in a bid to flee the country.

This is an odd movie, usually in a good way but it's tonally all over the place. The most meandering getaway you've ever seen passes through neighbourhoods of biting social drama, breath-holding tension and laugh-out-loud comedy alike. At some points these are structurally juxtaposed to suggest emotional pit-stops, although at others this feels like the scripts of two different movies have been filmed using the same cast.

Saved by committed performances all round, the film is quite remarkable. Although I'm deducting a point because it should have ended around six minutes earlier than it did*2. Matsoukas aims for Off-Beat™ and in that regard Queen & Slim is a notable success, although perhaps more in the experiment itself than its conclusion...



So, what sort of thing is it similar to?
Well Bonnie & Clyde is the most obvious touchstone, but since characters within the movie reference this I'm disallowing it. Think of The Hate U Give meets Blue Ruin meets the first half of From Dusk Till Dawn meets Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.

Yeah.
.


Is it worth paying cinema-prices to see?
If you know you're already onboard, sure.


Is it worth hunting out on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming, though?
It is.


Is this the best work of the cast or director?
Let's not go mad here.


Will we disagree about this film in a pub?
That's possible.


Is there a Wilhelm Scream in it?
There isn't.


Yeah but what's the Star Wars connection?
Level 2: Daniel Kaluuya is in this, and he was in that Black Panther alongside Lupita 'Kanata' Nyong'o, Sam 'Windu' Jackson and Andy 'Snoke' Serkis.


And if I HAD to put a number on it…


*1 Credit where it's due, the story was developed between Waithe and James Frey. Oh yes, that James Frey. So while several high-profile moments in this thriller come off as frankly unbelievable, bear in mind they're probably from the guy who can't even get his own life-story right... [ BACK ]

*2 Spoilers - highlight-to-read: Mate, have the pair in the standoff on the runway, have them look at each other, have them look back in unison at the police then cut to the directed-by credit. That's how you end the movie, with ambiguity. As a point of discussion, of uncertainty, of hope. Because if you have to spend the final six minutes with slow-motion sequences telling your audience that white cops shooting unarmed black civilians is A Bad Thing, you've probably wasted the two hours before that...
[ BACK ]


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

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