QUEEN AND SLIM

US, 2019, 132 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner- Smith, Bokeem Woodbine, Chloe Sevigny, Flea. Sturgill Simpson, Indya Moore.
Directed by Melina Matsoukas.

The title is something of an enigma because the two central characters are never referred to as Queen or as Slim during the whole film. In fact, the newspaper reports their names as Ernest Hines and Angela Johnson. Be that as it may, they turn out to be unexpectedly interesting characters.

There is a lot of cross reference to them as a contemporary Bonnie and Clyde. While they do get entangled with the police and are pursued across America, they are not outlaws in the sense of Bonnie and Clyde. Another helpful reference might be to The Odd Couple. This is a strong African- American film, the central couple, the screenwriter and the director (although Daniel Kaluuya is a British actor).

This is a road movie, Queen (Jodie Turner- Smith both forceful and vulnerable) and Slim (Daniel kill Kaluuya from Get Out and Black Panther) driving through Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida. The initial emphasis is on the odd couple, two strangers meeting on a date in a diner, he a rather ordinary citizen, devoted to his father, she a lawyer whose recent client has just been executed. They seem to have very little in common and the date is a flop. However, in a moment of lapse in driving, they are pulled over by an aggressive cop, obnoxiously racist, who draws a gun – and, in the consequence scuffle, Queen is shot in the leg and then shoots the cop.

The dilemma. To wait for the police? To drive off and escape? However, the cop had phoned in to headquarters the details of the case. And so, the pursuit is on.

What follows is the drama on the road but there are a whole lot of incidental anecdotes along the way which makes the pursuit and escape more telling. The car breaking down, their being helped by the local sheriff, taking his car. They encounter a young man at a service station shop who just wants to hold their gun. When their next car breaks down, they take it to a garage, the owner knowing who they are, but his young son coming in, facing them as heroes, and his going to a race rally the next day and violently confronting a policeman in a rage.

But, the main stop is with Queen’s uncle, whom she had defended in court, a Vietnam veteran, running a group of girls in Louisiana. But, while they change their appearance, the police are on to them and the uncle (Bokeem Woodbine) gives them a car and a reference to a buddy he fought within Vietnam.

As they travelled to this contact, they stop at a bar, live music, they dance, are recognised and supported. Then, in their exhilaration, Queen sits on the front seat window exhilarated with her arms in the air in the wind, eventually persuading Slim to do the same thing. They arrive at the friend’s house, hide, then escape, flying to Florida to get a plane which will fly them out of the country.

It is no spoiler to say that they do not succeed. There is quite some pathos at the brutality of the ending – and there are certainly more than echoes of Bonnie and Clyde.


1. The title? The characters and their actual names? The nicknames?

2. An American road movie, Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida? The wide range of scenery? The wide range of people?

3. The musical score, American styles?

4. The plausibility credibility of the plot? The characters and their backgrounds? The different personalities, the differences, ages, experience? Audience empathy with them or not?

5. The initial date, the restaurant, the decision about the date, the choice? The conversation, Queen, lawyers, the execution case? Slim, ordinary, his family, his father? The connecting or not?

6. The drive, talk, the swerve, held up by the police, the harsh behaviour, calling in the case, the policeman is racism, the gun, the fight, his wounding Queen, Slim shooting him?

7. The dilemma, the moral choice, energy or not? Slim wanting to find his father? Not? Leaving, the plan?

8. Out of gas, thumbing a lift, the sheriff, helping them with the petrol, his recognition, the gun, their putting him in the boot of the car? Taking the car? Leaving their own with the sheriff?

9. Travel, sleep, tensions, radio, music, the need for food?

10. Stopping at the supermarket, the assistant and his wanting to handle the gun?

11. Louisiana, Uncle Earl? The back story, his accidentally killing his sister, Queen defending him, his experience in Vietnam, post-traumatic stress? The girls, his running them? The decision to stay, the need for cash? The reference to Mr Shepherd and their war service?

12. The girls, friendly, knowing and understanding Earl? Shaving Slim’s head? Changing Queen’s appearance? The police the house? Burning the sheriff’s car?

13. Slim and taking the opportunity to phone his father, the police with his father, the father hanging up and not helping?

14. The developing relationship between the two, Queen and her mellowing, Slim and his taking more responsibilities, the attraction, the sexual encounter?

15. Earl giving the car, their driving, going to the live music, dancing, Queen mellowing, the people recognising them but protecting them?

16. The garage, fixing the car, the payment, the mechanic’s son, his attitudes, defying the police, going to the protest, his behaviour, the fierce defiance, shooting the policeman
in the face? His father’s grief?

17. Arriving at the Shepherd’s house, the wife hesitant, Shepherd and his help, the interruptions of the meal, the hiding under the bed, the searching the house? The decision to jump from the window, Slim helping Queen and her shoulder? The garage, the car, the black policeman letting them go?

18. Driving to Florida, the exhilaration, the window and sitting on it, the freedom and exhilaration?

19. The connection in Florida, demanding the plane instantly, arriving at the airport, the police cars, defying them, Queen shot, Slim carrying her, their deaths?

20. The man and his taking the reward and counting the money?

21. The funeral, the grief, Slim’s father?

22. The further glimpses of all the other characters in the aftermath?

23. The background of police killing black victims, demonstrations against these killings, the consequences?