Now that we’ve had some time for the hot takes to cool, we spend the latest Low Key Podcast discussing Melina Matsoukas’ consciousness-raising road movie Queen and Slim, written by Lena Waithe and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie-Turner Smith.
On every Low Key episode, your hosts Keith Dennie, Aaron Lanton and me discuss pop-culture moments we think others may have missed, often through a racial lens. The film follows a couple whose first date is interrupted by a bad traffic stop that turns into a road trip for justice.
Keith mostly embrace Queen and Slim, but Aaron says plot issues kept taking him out of the story. He also wonders—and we all discuss—whether the film overgeneralizes in its portrayal of how black people would respond to Queen and Slim.
Who’s right? No one’s right, it’s all opinion.
The film has gotten mostly positive reviews, but also a few criticisms of particular scenes and characters. In one of our longest episodes, we talk about the film’s lush visuals, deliberately complicated story, and most curious moments. We also talk about our own experiences with police stops. Hm.
Listen above or on your favorite podcast app:
Apple
Here are highlights from the episode, with timestamps:
Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:
1:15: Praise for Queen and Slim
2:22: Spoilers are coming, look out.
4:23: “This movie was so mixed for me. There were so many things I liked about it and so many things I didn’t like about it.”
6:55: “This movie is about projection”
9:15: Was Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde gay?
10:30: Aaron explains his first big plot issue with the film.
11:25: Could Queen and Slim have gotten a fair trial?
14:00: “The big issue is…the fact that a black person would be so afraid to even think that they could be represented correctly in a court of law.”
24:00: Let’s talk about the clothes, and Queen’s uncle, played by Bokeem Woodbine.
30:20: That weird gas station scene.
34:20: “Let me tell you something about black people and horses.”
36:00: “Road-movie-travel time is not real time.”
38:00: The Flea and Chloë Sevigny sequence
40:00: About the mechanic’s son
45:40: “Even though I don’t agree with shooting police officers—I definitely don’t agree with that at all—but I could understand certain people finding that as a way of fighting the power, going against the man, going against oppressors and taking it all the way to this whole other limit.”
59:00: Praise for Melina Matsoukas, Lena Waithe, Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie-Turner Smith.
Finally, we recommend you visit Keith’s business, CoffeeandNamaste.com, for all your holiday-season needs…
…check out this episode of MovieMaker Interviews with Daniel Kaluuya talking about Queen and Slim…
…and follow us on Instagram at @thelowkeypod.
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