Queen & Slim

The film starts from a single traffic stop. A couple driving back from their first date are pulled over on a trivial pretext; it escalates, and defending himself, he kills the officer. Both are Black, and from that moment they know running is the only option they have. The real subject is not the escape but what they become while escaping. As footage of them spreads they turn into a symbol for some people and a threat to others, with no control at all over their own story. Both are making their first feature. Melina Matsoukas comes from music video and the film's visual language draws on that; it is Lena Waithe's first film screenplay, from a story developed with James Frey. The two had worked together before on the Thanksgiving episode of Master of None, which won Waithe an Emmy. Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith lead, in Turner-Smith's first major role. The film opens with the two of them on a Tinder date, strangers to each other. Who it is for: viewers who like the fugitive film rebuilt around race and surveillance, in a formally ambitious register. Who it is not for: anyone wanting realism. The escape pauses a few times too often for poetry, and the final section slides openly into symbol.