Went to see the new Bonnie and Clyde-ish movie Queen and Slim the other night. I say Bonnie and Clyde but it shares more DNA with The Legend of Billie Jean (my 80s homies – up high!). That movie (and a little Clyde) mixed with a social message about being black in America. And, in my view, maybe not being a big dummy (but that’s not the intended message).
So the film follows the awkward blind date of a black man and woman. It goes relatively well until they get pulled over by a cop who hassles them. She’s a lawyer so she gets out her camera, the cop freaks and shoots her (grazing her), and the guy goes into defense mode and soon the cop is dead. The guy wants to go home and turn himself in but she insists they go on the lam… and now we have our couple-on-the-run flick.
To be fair, a lot of this movie is focused on the relationship between the couple. They really don’t like each other at first but that softens and soon they fall in what might be love. The actors are doing a very good job with their parts – no attack on either of them for bringing it – but the movie falls apart at what actually happens in the flick beyond their budding romance. Their actions themselves (though the dialog is fine).
Because you have a couple-on-the-run film, you want them to play it smart. But there’s almost no actions these two idiots do that are smart. They run out of gas (after driving from Cleveland to Kentucky), forget their wallets, decide to stop at a road house when they should just keep driving, hang out the passenger side of the car like dummies, possibly attracting attention, and so forth. Their actions as written just took me out of the movie… they can have activities they do while on the run, just make them something a reasonable person would do.
Plus there’s the message of the movie… that these two kids on the run become heroes to the black community. For shooting a cop and running… ok fine you want your Hands Up, Don’t Shoot movie but the film majorly drops the ball on actually showing their impact in the world. Only one real scene of a protest with the end result being pretty abominable on the side of the protesters. Maybe that was supposed to be heroic and maybe it is to certain movie-goers, but to me it was a step too far (and I kind of think the movie thought so too?). There’s little evidence on screen of a social change or these two becoming folk heroes otherwise until the end where they just straight up tell us… very little news stories, only a handful of comments from supporting actors, etc. When I say The Legend of Billie Jean did this better and that’s a dopey 80s movies about getting paid for work done (fair is fair!), that’s a real problem.
And the funny thing is, the cops aren’t really the bad guys in this movie, partially because they are barely in it. And that’s good – it suggests a fair treatment of the situation. Except I’m not 100% sure the film makers intended me to think this way. I think the movie is too muddled in its message and presentation. I’m not sure if this is a nuanced movie or just a dumb one that can’t tell its story correctly.
But I can’t argue the actors aren’t going a good job and that the movie has its heart in the right place. Though it self-sabotages and makes you start feeling for the cops at times and doesn’t do enough to make you root for the couple. It’s a mixed movie that might find its home with the right audience.
Score: 68