Queen & Slim Parent Guide

After matching over Tinder and having dinner together, Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) is driving Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) home when a police officer (Sturgill Simpson) pulls him over for failing to use his turn signal. What should be an ordinary traffic stop quickly escalates until Queen is shot and the officer is dead. Now on the run, Queen and Slim travel furtively through the backstreets of America as they make a break for Cuba.

This sounds like a dark, heavily political chase movie, but it really isn’t most of the time. It’s a combination road trip/romance/art film, and while it could have been a disorganized mess, the film is surprisingly cohesive. That’s not to say it ignores the obviously political aspects of the story, but most of the focus is on the development of the primary characters as they are forced to adapt to their situation and each other.

Director Melina Matsoukas made her name directing music videos for artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Beyoncé, and it shows. Lots of attention is paid to the framing of scenes, how shots direct the audience’s attention to different aspects of the environment or the characters - it’s cleverly done. On the less subtle end, there are some artsy scenes where characters are having entire conversations in voice-over. I don’t think it’s enough to discourage casual viewers, but it definitely takes a little getting used to.

This isn’t a film for everybody, thanks to large doses of sex and profanity. While the sex is limited to a fairly graphic sex scene which includes nudity and a few more scenes with scantily clad women, the profanity is near-constant. The violence is a little rough, but it’s largely confined to three distinct scenes. In Queen and Slim’s defense, I figure if you’re being hunted by every police department in the country, cussing isn’t going to be unexpected.

All that said, adult movie buffs who aren’t fazed by content issues and enjoy films that tackle serious issues could find Queen & Slim to be well worth watching. It doesn’t trot out simplistic answers to the significant political questions it raises and it doesn’t smooth the sharp edges on its complex, likeable main characters. There aren’t too many films like this one - I’m not sure if that’s too bad or if I’d appreciate them less if they were more common. At any rate, this isn’t the worst Tinder date I’ve heard of… although I probably wouldn’t recommend seeing this on a first date of your own.