Queen & Slim started off as an intense drama that had me on the edge of my seat. Once the movie settled into the meat and potatoes it was no longer as intense and it was no longer a gripping drama, it was a romance.
All indications from the trailers and from the beginning of the movie made it quite obviously that it was about a Black man and a Black woman who'd just accidentally killed a Cleveland cop and their frenetic actions afterwards. Somewhere during the movie the primary issue became secondary if not tertiary as the budding relationship between them took center stage. I didn't have a problem with that necessarily, but I do think the air was let out of the sails.
As they made their cross-country trek to Florida so that they could make an Assata Shakur-style escape to Cuba they began to be less and less cautious, and less and less concerned about being caught. Each little romantic side excursion they took signaled to me as a viewer that it was no longer about escaping, it was now about creating a loving relationship. Once that was clearly the focus, I myself no longer had the same vested interest in their escape. Their escaping was a secondary concern to me as much as it seemed to be to them.
The contrast could not have been clearer than when they were having sex in the car while a protest was going on presumably in their name. Whereas the people saw two worthy individuals to galvanize them, those two people only saw each other. What was or wasn't happening around them was background noise as they began to act only for each other.
So, the end, which could be viewed as tragic to some, seemed inevitable to me. They died as a heroic couple when they were anything but, they were just a couple in circumstances that compressed them together as one. This is not to say that heroes can't be born from acting reflexively, it's more of a question of who deserves to be a hero. So, while their death was poetic and certainly romantic, I never saw it as heroic because they changed nothing.
Their death brought about no changes whatsoever. The only thing that altered from the moment they shot a cop until the moment they were gunned down was that they were lovers. No truths were revealed because whoever saw the dashcam video believed about it what they wanted to believe. There were no heroes created by their action, the only actor inspired by them was a boy who shot a cop in the face.
Yes, they were two compelling characters, especially Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith). Yes, something occurred the fateful night they met and yes, they went on a journey together. But, no, nothing changed by the time they were slain on the tarmac.
I don't want you to think that I didn't enjoy the movie because I did. This was an enjoyable movie. I enjoyed the performances by Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya. I enjoyed the movie in general and the social dynamic it addressed. It was a good movie even if I felt it was a little bit of a bait and switch.
All indications from the trailers and from the beginning of the movie made it quite obviously that it was about a Black man and a Black woman who'd just accidentally killed a Cleveland cop and their frenetic actions afterwards. Somewhere during the movie the primary issue became secondary if not tertiary as the budding relationship between them took center stage. I didn't have a problem with that necessarily, but I do think the air was let out of the sails.
As they made their cross-country trek to Florida so that they could make an Assata Shakur-style escape to Cuba they began to be less and less cautious, and less and less concerned about being caught. Each little romantic side excursion they took signaled to me as a viewer that it was no longer about escaping, it was now about creating a loving relationship. Once that was clearly the focus, I myself no longer had the same vested interest in their escape. Their escaping was a secondary concern to me as much as it seemed to be to them.
The contrast could not have been clearer than when they were having sex in the car while a protest was going on presumably in their name. Whereas the people saw two worthy individuals to galvanize them, those two people only saw each other. What was or wasn't happening around them was background noise as they began to act only for each other.
So, the end, which could be viewed as tragic to some, seemed inevitable to me. They died as a heroic couple when they were anything but, they were just a couple in circumstances that compressed them together as one. This is not to say that heroes can't be born from acting reflexively, it's more of a question of who deserves to be a hero. So, while their death was poetic and certainly romantic, I never saw it as heroic because they changed nothing.
Their death brought about no changes whatsoever. The only thing that altered from the moment they shot a cop until the moment they were gunned down was that they were lovers. No truths were revealed because whoever saw the dashcam video believed about it what they wanted to believe. There were no heroes created by their action, the only actor inspired by them was a boy who shot a cop in the face.
Yes, they were two compelling characters, especially Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith). Yes, something occurred the fateful night they met and yes, they went on a journey together. But, no, nothing changed by the time they were slain on the tarmac.
I don't want you to think that I didn't enjoy the movie because I did. This was an enjoyable movie. I enjoyed the performances by Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya. I enjoyed the movie in general and the social dynamic it addressed. It was a good movie even if I felt it was a little bit of a bait and switch.