Maybe all America needs is just a good solid road movie.
Better yet, you might tag along withQueen & Slim, a lush lovers-on-the-run odyssey.
Theres a familiar tragedy in Ohio, a makeover in New Orleans, the dream of blue Atlantic horizons.
Credit: Universal Pictures
Sometimes the long ride takes a wrong turn, or spends awhile in cruise control.
And yet this haphazard filmisa ride, a romantic provocation torn between cultural strife and individual striving.
Jodie Turner-Smith andDaniel Kaluuyastar.
Lets call them Queen and Slim, though its awhile before anyone says their names aloud.
And in the first scene they could be anybody, just a couple people on a first Tinder date.
The script byLena Waithequickly sketches in their two different worlds.
Shes a frowning lawyer with fashion sense.
Hes an unshaven smiler who mumbles a silent prayer before eating.
Dinner doesnt go well.
Its not a fancy restaurant though, he notes with pride, its black-owned.
They dont have much in common.
Shes got no family, and he wont stop talking about his dad.
His license plate says TRUSTGOD, and she looks ever-so-embarrassed when he says grace.
Theyre both African-American, but that doesnt mean hes getting a second date.
The world spirals, suddenly and irrevocably.
They get pulled over on the drive home.
Slim failed to execute a turn signal says the white policeman (Sturgill Simpson).
The whole interaction simmers with justifiable tension, and then explodes into violence.
Hell, they dont even have a gun so they dont shoot first, either.
Matsoukas is also the eye-popping music video auteur behind BeyoncesFormation.
Are you all the new Black Panthers?
one guy asks them with a tone of admiration, even after they accidentally run him over.
New Orleans offers a place of refuge, Queen promises Slim.
Instead, the drive carries the couple through a series of dreamy interludes.
Some sequences are fascinating.
Other times, the tangents trend on the nose, or overly expositional.
Theres grace in the wandering, though.
This this particular nightmare is a national one, of course, steeped in racial tension.
Kaluuya lets Slim find an odd liberation in his desperation.
In a make-or-break scene, he basically tells Queen they have to chill out and dance.
Turner-Smith has the trickier role, in a character arc thats mostly internal.
Sometimes, though, Queen and Slim get to just hang out.
They debate Skinny Luther or Fat Luther.
They listen to music, and I treasure the movies old-fashioned just-let-the-radio-play soundtrack.
Their conversation turns searching and thoughtful.
Why do black people always feel the need to be excellent?
Matsoukas evokes the shifting landscape around them, all back country roads and waterfront sunsets.
Waithes screenplay investigates the characters and their country.
Its beautiful out here, Slim says at one point.
Queen looks out the window and sees a crew of black convicts laboring under the gun.
The road is bumpy, but what a trip.B
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