Queen & Slim...should you see it?

hmm...
I was hesitant to see this film. To be honest, the way it was sold to me and the comparison to Bonnie and Clyde did not appeal to me. I am glad I went but I wish it was either a take on Bonnie and Clyde or about racial disparity for blacks. The story was great but if you follow the story of Bonnie and Clyde, it made sense but the message was so much deeper than it was hard to compartmentalize.

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The actors were great, although as British actors played the major roles, I felt it would have been nice to give the American actors their shine. The race relations for blacks in the United States are different than that of the United Kingdom albeit disparate in both countries. I digress.
I am glad I was wrong about the actors, they took you on an emotional journey. The correlations were similar, Bonnie and Clyde were "on the run" traveling from Texas to Louisiana, Queen and Slim were traveling from Ohio, headed to Cuba but stopped in....yep, Louisiana. If this were not about "black Bonnie and Clyde" why did they title it with the woman's name first? Queen->Bonnie first and Slim->Clyde and not Slim and Queen? Directors don't just "happen to" do anything. They know when they created the title exactly how to leave bread crumbs to lead you in said direction. Also, Queen being shot in her thigh was reminiscent of Bonnie's third-degree burns from either battery acid or petrol fire.
Queen and Slim were great in that the movie got right to the main story as opposed to dragging it out. I found myself getting emotional at times. Like Clyde, Slim was heavily influenced by Queen. The director uses Tinder to explain why the two were together, we meet them mid-date, we didn't have an opening where she decides to swipe, then gets ready for a date, nervousness brought on from blind dates, the friend that encourages or discourages her, and so on. Nope, they've ordered, the food is brought out and that's where we meet the characters. Queen didn't score points and if I were Slim I would have left as soon as the meal was over because of her sidity and critical attitude towards a nice guy (blessing the food, trust God license plate, family-oriented). We learn that she must have gotten picked up from her house. Rule Violation #1 for blind dates. We know there is going to be the scene that becomes the plot if you will. I was triggered by the scene because it reminds us that in a gnat's eyelash to 2020, blacks are still treated unjustly by law enforcement and the system so we know that could be us, and society knows the system fails people of colour. This made me so angry because we can count incidents where blacks were minding their business eating ice cream or sitting on a couch and they are shot by an officer. We have an innate fear that is an unspoken systematic behavior. We encounter we can die. For instance, an officer passed me whilst waking my dog and drove slowly as he passed me as if he was looking for someone and wanted to see if I had the matching characteristics. Black girl, doesn't matter height or weight, he just needs an arrest then determines my innocence and my first thought is, "I hope someone has a phone and gets whatever may come of this on tape" because he could make any narrative to justify shooting me. I hate that this is the first thought rather than "Oh, a cop is looking for someone or someplace..." I digress again! See what this film does? You relate and have your own real-life situation from a movie that could not happen as much as it could happen.
So, like Bonnie, Queen has on a dress and heels. Bonnie had a limp, Queen has been grazed by a gunshot but she decides to pick a dress, almost a slip, and some high heeled boots. The actress was so good looking all I thought about was how I could not tell her anything with how her body, her walk, she was bad. We never learn Slim's real name or why he's got that moniker, but he picks a more realistic outfit, but he went through all that and his kicks were snow white. See, it's ridiculous but you are wanting more. "How are they just happen..." yet you are drawn in to see how the situation will work itself out. This all happens from a Tinder date? Really?! Give me more! The dynamics are too much. We see that each stop someone just happens to have a contact that will help them get to Cuba.
The scene with the white couple kept you guessing but so much happens you are following different situations simultaneously, "Will the white woman sell them out?" "They don't know where the hot spots to hide are located will they be able to hide?" Once you get through and exhale because they succeeded but then Bonnie dislocates her shoulder. What?! Oddly enough Slim just so happens to know just how to pop it back into place the first try, and we don't know why or how he obtained that skill, but here it comes, yay her shoulder is fixed but oh sh*t the cop heard her. There happens to be a garage with a car and no one's home apparently. God-fearing Christian Slim learned how to hotwire a car but we learn it was something he and his brother did to their parents. Black family mom and dad are married, no stereotypical black male with absent father here...Again, you get in your yay the car starts, they can get back on the road, Oh no! What's going to happen? The scene is deer in the headlights in the car, deer in the headlights opening the garage. The two parties are shocked and scared of each other but we get a reprieve. This never happens but I'm here for it! They luck out AGAIN... (now I understand people who hate-watch)
We are driving with the characters, who at each stop is recognized. How does everyone know who they are, minus insane white kid oblivious to the newspaper with Queen and Slim posted? If I'm in a club, and it's dark, I wouldn't recognize my own family. When would that happen? Exactly!
Like Bonnie and Clyde, they are Robin Hood and Romeo and Juliet to the public and idolized for their crime spree. Everyone loves an underdog.
Fast forward because this is getting out of hand and I find myself confused with my feelings. Oxymoron FTL! The finale comes, and although we see they are so close, within yards, of their goal, we know something is going to happen. At this point, we are captivated. We want to know how this is going to play out and what will be their legacy. Clyde was shot in the head and died before he felt it, according to an autopsy, in this version it is one bullet to Queen's chest. Okay, she's down, they have declared their love, taught each other how to love, have intense sex, and put their lives and fate in one another's hands, so is Clyde Slim going to run toward them shouting because they killed his soul mate, is he going to turn and run toward the plane. Uh-oh, he's picking up Queen and carrying her lifeless body as if he's going to hand a baby back to its mum. They ask him to stop and loose hands hooligan who accidentally shot Queen is where the camera pans as if he made eye contact with the cop who executed his soulmate, but he then looks at each and everyone as they hover in helicopters, barricade the landing strip and have their fingers on the trigger. We walk with him and are thinking, he knows he's going to die right now...he's sprayed with gunfire and the screen fades to black I'm waiting for credits to roll, but we see the "legacy" the couple had on the public. Gayle King reports on the story and recounts all the events, such as the protest, we see the uncle at the funeral, we see the white couple and then boom. We see the "friend" who had a friend with a plane counting the reward money, in cash. Noooo! It was one of us, the wife didn't do it. But why did this white man know Mr. Gold Teeth Smokin Blunts? How were they, friends? We learn the purpose of each character, we know why Queen goes to her uncle, we know why her uncle is friends with the man from the white couple, (didn't catch their names but of course, Chloë Sevigny
plays that character who just so happened to sell out Gypsy Rose) by that man and the sell out? Did they have a near-death experience or something so that they had faith in each other with such a serious and criminally compromising situation? Did the white guy have anything to do with their apprehension, because I never hated an actor as much as I do at this moment?
I left the theatre happy that I went, that I was wrong, but also sad and angry. Later I had an epiphany that I told my white uncle. "Uncle, I don't think I could feel 100% with a white partner" In my mind, there is so much that happens where I look at the white race resenting the fact I do things to make them feel comfortable in my presence, I speak differently to them than my own, that they can get angry and as a male not get arrested, and as a woman not be labeled as the angry....you get the picture. It's bad enough you don't know what neckbones, ham hocks, are and your collards and sweet potatoes taste like sh*t. You don't remember "new growth" and jerry curl juice but you want to tell me you should be able to say something. Always need to be telling us to accommodate you. You see the madness. Maybe people are right and I overthink too much because I seriously came home and wanted to get other reviews on Youtube so I could get a different perspective...