Queen & Slim will bowl you over

A crime thriller and romantic epic in one, Queen & Slim is a charged and sensual story.

Queen & Slim is a romantic epic and crime thriller swept into one compelling package, a movie for our times, but also timeless.

Starring Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, the film starts with two young people on a Tinder date. It’s a mediocre date – nothing disastrous but nothing that would lead to a second date.

Queen (Turner-Smith) is a lawyer with regal bearing while Slim (Kaluuya) is an earnest, religious young man who declines to make a fuss over a waitress who stuffed up his egg preferences.

On their way home on a frigid Cleveland night, their car is pulled over by a cop for a traffic infringement. You probably won’t have to work too hard to guess what happens next.

The US has been gripped by incidents of police brutality, especially against African-American males – and what happens in this fictional film feels all too real. Without going into specifics, because the scene is tensely choreographed, Queen and Slim are forced on the run as fugitives.

Queen & Slim is a crime thriller and a love story

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These two people who barely know each other are now thrust into the most extreme of circumstances, having to trust not just each other but those they encounter in an Underground Railroad-esque odyssey.

Their plight makes them modern-day folk heroes for a community frustrated about the systemic racism they’re still suffering through, 150 years after emancipation. Queen and Slim’s experience becomes emblematic.

Queen and Slim aren’t the characters’ real names, which are only revealed at the end. This is a movie that’s deeply interested in legacy, and the power of memory and symbols to start movements.

Some have compared Queen & Slim to Bonnie and Clyde, because of the thrilling and romanticised depiction of life on the road, dodging law enforcement, and the adrenaline of close calls. But there is an important distinction between the pair.

Bonnie and Clyde were violent robbers whereas Queen and Slim are victims of institutional racism. They didn’t choose to be fugitives – turning themselves in at any point was certain death.

Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Smith-Turner’s charged on-screen chemistry propels the film

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As potent as Queen & Slim’s social commentary is, the film’s real strength is in its love story.

Writer Lena Waithe (Master of None, The Chi), from a story by Waithe and James Frey, has crafted this elegant and arresting romance between two people whose relationship arc journeys from indifference and annoyance to can’t live without each other intensity.

There’s a turning point midway through when they chance upon a blues bar in Mississippi, an intimate joint with writhing bodies, raw passion and an electric atmosphere. The scene is visceral, as is the sizzling chemistry between Kaluuya and Turner-Smith who adeptly evolve their characters’ dynamics as the film progresses.

Queen & Slim is director Melina Matsoukas’ first feature, having previously been lauded for her work on music videos. That background has clearly benefited this film, especially in that blues bar scene. There’s an irresistible rhythm to it, a confidence that beams through every frame.

The sensual score is another standout element, composed by English musician Devonte Hynes who was recommended to Matsoukas by, of all people, Solange Knowles.

Queen & Slim bowls you over with its powerful, charged story. Not one to be missed.

Rating: 4/5

Queen & Slim is in cinemas now

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