Queen & Slim
Queen & Slim is a drama/love story set in modern day Ohio that follows two Tinder date strangers as they eat dinner together, followed by everything going horribly wrong. It stars Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith and was released in US theatres on November 27, 2019. Queen & Slim is rated R for persistent language, violence, sex/nudity, drug use, and racism and runs 2 hours and 12 minutes.
I saw Queen & Slim in a good sized theatre with about 35 other people during a Discount Tuesday showing on 12/3/19. I think this movie does some things really well (primary character development, dialogue, tension), and some things not well at all (the message was bungled/unclear, supporting characters were not well defined/stereotypes, certain situations and reactions did not ring true). I'm torn because I really want to like this movie, and I think I do, but I don't like it as much as I want to. I think it's a solid step in the right direction, but I can't call this film important or must-see.
If you don't want to be spoiled, then you won't want to read this review until you've seen the movie, because I will most definitely spoil it for you. You've been warned!
First, what I didn't like about this movie. I think it was obvious that it was going to end one way: with the main characters killed by police. That's not surprising or disappointing, necessarily, but I don't like the way the movie reached that conclusion. Yes, our current environment is such that it's a crime punishable by death just to be black. Yes, these folks did not deserve to be murdered since, as far as I can tell, their only actual crime was stealing a pickup truck, kidnapping the owner, and then later burning the truck in the woods. They locked the owner in a trunk of an early 00's Acura, so I am positive he used the emergency escape handle and was out within minutes. The fact is that even though a character literally refers to them as the "black Bonnie and Clyde" they are far from that. They shot and killed a cop in self-defense, and only committed crimes that a white person would serve, at most, a year or two for. The real Bonnie and Clyde were serial bank robbers and murderers, and they deserved what they got. Queen & Slim didn't.
I also didn't like the way the ending was shot. The crane shot pulling up and away from Queen and Slim's bodies on the asphalt as police surrounded them, followed by black should have then been followed by credits. However, we got another collection of scenes during the funeral, interspersed with "where are they now" updates on supporting characters. Followed by another black screen, which was then followed by...another collections of scenes showing kids playing with Queen and Slim t-shirts, and a mural being put up of the main characters. More black, then finally credits. People in the theatre actually got up to leave at the first black screen, because that was a logical place to end the movie. They then started to leave again after the second black screen. If your audience thinks it's time to go, then it's time to end the movie, folks.
There were a couple of scenes that just didn't make sense, or didn't come off well. Once, Queen and Slim stop by a farm with horses grazing by the road, and Slim laments that he never rode a horse. Then he says, "I'm gonna ride a horse" and then rides a horse. It just struck me as dumb, even though I get that he probably knew he wasn't going to make it out alive, and he wanted to ride a horse, but it just felt stupid. After Queen visited her mother's grave, she and Slim had sex in the car, and these scenes were intercut with a young boy protesting, and eventually shooting a cop. I get that the point was to juxtapose these two emotionally charged events, on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the filmmakers weren't skilled enough to pull it off.
All that said, I didn't hate the movie. The main characters were incredibly well developed and felt like real people. Their relationship and how it evolved and grew over the course of the film, I bought into completely. It was also nice that the crew filmed on location in the places they were supposed to be in the film: Ohio, New Orleans, Georgia, and Florida. That gave it a sense of realism and weight that might have otherwise been missing. There were a couple of times that I found myself identifying pretty strongly with the two main characters. At one point, Queen asks Slim how he's doing. He answers, "I'm ok." To which she responds incredulously, because things are definitely not ok. He then pauses, and says, "I've just been saying I'm ok for so long, even if I'm not." There were other times that Queen would look at the situation logically and factually instead of just forging ahead and hoping things would work out.
Queen & Slim certainly doesn't sugar coat racism, it doesn't shy away from harsh truths. There was a shot of a chain gang, and houses that looked like old plantations, and people being horrible. I wanted the message to be better, I wanted Queen and Slim to get away, and escape the horribleness of race relations in the US right now. The fact that didn't happen disappoints me, but I realize that there are plenty of movies with white people made by white people that tried to say something important and failed, or just bungled their film, and I didn't rail about those. So it's unfair of me, especially as a white person, to hold Queen & Slim to a different standard. The POC in the theatre didn't really seem to have a problem with it, they were just there to enjoy a movie with folks that looked like them in it. So if they think it's ok, I should, too.
Have you seen Queen & Slim and have your own thoughts about it, its message, and how awesome Queen looked with her natural hair? Post a comment and let me know. Have a nice day!
I saw Queen & Slim in a good sized theatre with about 35 other people during a Discount Tuesday showing on 12/3/19. I think this movie does some things really well (primary character development, dialogue, tension), and some things not well at all (the message was bungled/unclear, supporting characters were not well defined/stereotypes, certain situations and reactions did not ring true). I'm torn because I really want to like this movie, and I think I do, but I don't like it as much as I want to. I think it's a solid step in the right direction, but I can't call this film important or must-see.
If you don't want to be spoiled, then you won't want to read this review until you've seen the movie, because I will most definitely spoil it for you. You've been warned!
First, what I didn't like about this movie. I think it was obvious that it was going to end one way: with the main characters killed by police. That's not surprising or disappointing, necessarily, but I don't like the way the movie reached that conclusion. Yes, our current environment is such that it's a crime punishable by death just to be black. Yes, these folks did not deserve to be murdered since, as far as I can tell, their only actual crime was stealing a pickup truck, kidnapping the owner, and then later burning the truck in the woods. They locked the owner in a trunk of an early 00's Acura, so I am positive he used the emergency escape handle and was out within minutes. The fact is that even though a character literally refers to them as the "black Bonnie and Clyde" they are far from that. They shot and killed a cop in self-defense, and only committed crimes that a white person would serve, at most, a year or two for. The real Bonnie and Clyde were serial bank robbers and murderers, and they deserved what they got. Queen & Slim didn't.
I also didn't like the way the ending was shot. The crane shot pulling up and away from Queen and Slim's bodies on the asphalt as police surrounded them, followed by black should have then been followed by credits. However, we got another collection of scenes during the funeral, interspersed with "where are they now" updates on supporting characters. Followed by another black screen, which was then followed by...another collections of scenes showing kids playing with Queen and Slim t-shirts, and a mural being put up of the main characters. More black, then finally credits. People in the theatre actually got up to leave at the first black screen, because that was a logical place to end the movie. They then started to leave again after the second black screen. If your audience thinks it's time to go, then it's time to end the movie, folks.
There were a couple of scenes that just didn't make sense, or didn't come off well. Once, Queen and Slim stop by a farm with horses grazing by the road, and Slim laments that he never rode a horse. Then he says, "I'm gonna ride a horse" and then rides a horse. It just struck me as dumb, even though I get that he probably knew he wasn't going to make it out alive, and he wanted to ride a horse, but it just felt stupid. After Queen visited her mother's grave, she and Slim had sex in the car, and these scenes were intercut with a young boy protesting, and eventually shooting a cop. I get that the point was to juxtapose these two emotionally charged events, on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the filmmakers weren't skilled enough to pull it off.
All that said, I didn't hate the movie. The main characters were incredibly well developed and felt like real people. Their relationship and how it evolved and grew over the course of the film, I bought into completely. It was also nice that the crew filmed on location in the places they were supposed to be in the film: Ohio, New Orleans, Georgia, and Florida. That gave it a sense of realism and weight that might have otherwise been missing. There were a couple of times that I found myself identifying pretty strongly with the two main characters. At one point, Queen asks Slim how he's doing. He answers, "I'm ok." To which she responds incredulously, because things are definitely not ok. He then pauses, and says, "I've just been saying I'm ok for so long, even if I'm not." There were other times that Queen would look at the situation logically and factually instead of just forging ahead and hoping things would work out.
Queen & Slim certainly doesn't sugar coat racism, it doesn't shy away from harsh truths. There was a shot of a chain gang, and houses that looked like old plantations, and people being horrible. I wanted the message to be better, I wanted Queen and Slim to get away, and escape the horribleness of race relations in the US right now. The fact that didn't happen disappoints me, but I realize that there are plenty of movies with white people made by white people that tried to say something important and failed, or just bungled their film, and I didn't rail about those. So it's unfair of me, especially as a white person, to hold Queen & Slim to a different standard. The POC in the theatre didn't really seem to have a problem with it, they were just there to enjoy a movie with folks that looked like them in it. So if they think it's ok, I should, too.
Have you seen Queen & Slim and have your own thoughts about it, its message, and how awesome Queen looked with her natural hair? Post a comment and let me know. Have a nice day!
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