‘Queen & Slim’ film review: A heartbreaking road trip

On the surface, “Queen & Slim” looks like a good time: A man and woman’s crime spree turns roma🌜ntic as they drive around the country in stolen cars. The pair meets big personalities along the way and don eye-popping costumes. They’re even referred to in the film as “the black Bonnie and Clyde.”

But it’s 2019, and this road trip begins with an act of police brutality. While on a Tinder date, Ernest (Daniel Kaluuya) and Angela (Jodie Turner-Smith) are pulled over by an Ohio cop, who tak✃es out his gun and carelessly shoots Angela in t𒁃he leg. After an act of self-defense, that officer winds up dead.

The inciting incident is traumatic to watch; you find yourself yelliꦓng “No!” at the screen like it’s a slasher flick instead of an exceptional drama. But it also ensures that every subsequent moment of this movie is taut with paranoia and emotion. These two aren’t running away and breaking the law for the adrenaline rush — they’re do♎ing it to stay alive.

Their first goal is to make it to Angela’s uncle Earl in New Orleans, which proves challenging because dashcam footage of the shooting, and their photos, hit the news within hours. Some think they’re heroes, others think they’re thugs. Lena Waithe’s script deftly explores each perspective, particularly through an affecting performance by Jahi Di’Allo Winston as an impressionable and impulsive kid.

It’s hard to believe this is the first feature film for director Melina Matsoukas, who previously helmed the brilliant “Thanksgiving” episode of “Master of None,” and has ha꧑d a prolific career in music videos. You have to have a confident point of view to film Beyoncé’s “Formation,” and that boldness comes across here in how she so effortlessly fills wordless moments. Visually, “Queen & Slim” is a Thanksgiving feast.

But Matsoukas also finds two first-rate performances in Kaluuya and Turner-Smith. Theirs is one of the more carefully paced romances in recent memory, and the subtle way their tension switches from fear to desire is masterful. After “Get Out” and “Black Panther,” you can only c🐻onclude that the sublime Kaluuya makes exclusively inspired career decisions.

And Turner-Smith’s gradual realization that this chase only ends one way is beautifully constructed. She becom♔es more assertive in the way she walks and talks, as if there’s ꦬnothing to lose.

Still, when you like characters this much, you hope everything will turn out for the best, right ’til the very end.