DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND
DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND
DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND
“had a sad look” on his face and
she “felt sorry” for him is not
exactly the kind of repartee that
will lead to the post-date activity
Slim is hoping for. Add that to
the early hints at how seemingly
incompatible Queen’s desire for
Black excellence is with Slim’s
contentedness, a theme that
the movie consistently returns
to, and it’s more than likely
that they would never see each
other again once the date is
through. It’s an unexpected
way to start a (Black) love
story, but it makes it all the
more affecting to watch our
protagonists get on the same
page as the movie progresses.Queen & Slim
1 BAD DATE
Amon Warmann:Queen &
Slim’s inciting incident is both
familiar and new. After our leads
are pulled over by a racist cop
on their way home for failing
to use a signal, things quickly
escalate from a contraband
search to a scuffl e that sees
Queen take a bullet in the leg.
But this time it’s the cop who
ends up dead after Slim fatally
shoots him in self-defence, and
in the blink of an eye our titular
characters are on the run.Lena Waithe: I had written that
scene a million different ways.
But ultimately what we landedon was that it absolutely feels
like self-defence. I love that
[Slim] is respectable and not
confrontational — you can see
how he deals with the cop. His
instinct is just to protect this
Black woman. I think there is
something beautiful about this
Black man just instinctively
going after this person that
injured this Black woman who he
has just met. I feel like a Black
man should try and help a
Black woman even if he doesn’t
know her. It’s our community,
we should help each other out.
I think that moment represented
him standing up for her.Top: Fugitives
Slim (Daniel
Kaluuya) and
Queen (Jodie
Turner-Smith)
take a breather.
Left: An awkward
fi rst Tinder date.
Above: Slim is
pulled over by
a racist cop.Amon Warmann: While Queen
and Slim are at one point called
“the Black Bonnie and Clyde”,
that label feels reductive. The
couple don’t start the movie as
lovers, and by the end of the
opening scene it’s hard to even
see them becoming friends.
Their fi rst date is freighted with
zingers (“Did you pick this
place because it’s all you could
afford?” asks Jodie Turner-
Smith’s Queen. “It’s Black-
owned,” is the fast reply from
Daniel Kaluuya’s Slim), and the
less-than-subtle shading doesn’t
end there. Indeed, Queen’s harsh
put-down of having only agreed
to the Tinder date because Slim2 THE SHOOTING
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