QUEEN & SLIM
COMMON KNOWLEDGE? > Tom Cruise, Emile Hirsch, Lindsay Lohan, Chris Hemsworth, Will Ferrell
“I always say music videos and commercials are a
sprint, and television and film is very much a mara-
thon,” says Melina Matsoukas, 38. The lauded music-
video and TV director is making her big-screen
debut with Queen & Slim, a stylish romantic thriller about a
pair of strangers whose Tinder date ends with them killing a
cop in self-defense. Heady stuff, but Matsoukas has long been
training for this moment.
After graduating from film school, she quickly became a
go-to director for music royalty like Beyoncé and Rihanna.
“I got to learn how music could be a character, and I started
to concentrate on the narrative and bringing stories into
that space,” says Matsoukas, who won a Grammy for Beyon-
cé’s “Formation.”
Wanting to grow, she transitioned to TV commercials and
eventually became a director on Issa Rae’s Insecure on HBO, and
then on Netflix’s Master of None, where she collaborated with
Lena Waithe for the Emmy-winning “Thanksgiving ” episode. At
the time Waithe was penning her debut feature, Queen & Slim.
Says Matsoukas: “Once I read it, I knew it was my first film.”
She was excited to finally be able
to share her own vision. “Rihanna,
Issa, Lena—these are their stories,”
says the director. “But with this
film, I got to develop something
that was from me, from my soul.”
Indeed, Queen & Slim’s lush palette
and striking visuals are as intense
as its story line.
And Matsoukas knows that the
impact of her art is already making
waves: “Filmmakers like me, Issa,
Lena, Ava DuVernay, and Barry
Jenkins are breaking down doors.
It’s time for change, and the world
is recognizing it.” ÑDL
DIRECTED BY Melina Matsoukas
STARRING Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie
TurnerSmith, Bokeem Woodbine
IN THEATERS Nov. 27
1
Queen & Slim 2019
“I hope that it brings
value to black life and
the black experience.”
2
“Formation” 2016
“I love [music videos],
it’s like a quick fix. I
call it my little drug.”
3
Insecure 2016
“I met with Issa Rae,
and we spoke the
same language. I
understood that story
because I had lived it.”
4
Master of None 2017
“There was a certain
amount of trust that
Lena allowed me
to have with her story
that I hadn’t experi
enced before.”
I
MELINA MATSOUKAS
Visionary
The
1
2 3 4
EW ● COM NOVEMBER 2019 55
MATSOUKAS: GILLIAN GARCIA;
QUEEN & SLIM
: UNIVERSAL PICTURES;
INSECURE
: JUSTINA MINTZ/HBO;
MASTER OF NONE
: NETFLIX
