Edgy Crime Spree Thriller Tackles Weighty Matters
More under the hood than your typical crime/escape road picture, “Queen & Slim” tackles sophisticated issues. Love him or hate him, Colin Kaepernick didn’t have to kneel to remind Americans of the broken relationship between black and blue. And, within the familiar confines of the crime spree genre, director Melina Matsoukas (see Beyoncé’s ground-breaking “Formation” music video) comments colorfully on the state of things.
“Queen & Slim” starts with an unassuming date. One ordinary evening, Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) gives into Slim’s persistent requests and joins him for dinner. She’s an outspoken public defender, whose aggressive views cause her to seek comfort in being alone. Slim’s a humble guy, whose best friend is his father. He takes her to a friendly diner, and the two get to know one another. Queen’s headstrong personality is a little off-putting, at first, but it’s evident that the patient Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) is determined to stick it out.
On the way home from the diner, Slim’s pulled over by a police officer. When the gruff officer asks him a few questions, Queen goes all lawyer on the guy. Naturally, this escalates an already tense situation, and when a misunderstanding ends in the nervous officer’s accidental death, Queen and Slim go on the lam. Initially, Slim wants to call his father and turn himself in, but the world-weary Queen has other ideas.
Read the full review online and in print in the Times-Herald: https://times-herald.com/news/2019/11/queen-slim-edgy-crime-spree-thriller-tackles-weighty-matters