Rod and Bassey review Queen And Slim. We also discuss trailers before the movie and your feedback on Rod’s other solo reviews.
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Spoiled Reviews: (Protected Content)
SMR 267: Queen And Slim (With Bassey Ikpi)
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thanks so much for this review… Rod, I too, enjoy your solo reviews. I don’t go to the movies very often… I can’t remember the last movie that I saw… but, I was really looking forward to this movie… had already made plans to see it w/ a cousin on the weekend after these reviews dropped. I guess I was too gullible or ignorant to know what this movie was really going to be about… because I did think that it was going to be a love story… or, @ least have a happy/satisfying ending… so when I heard this & Rod’s solo review, I said, “oh, hell naw!!” cancelled plans w/ my cousin right after hearing both reviews… LOL.
I’m not opposed to seeing slavery/uncomfortable movies @ all… but, based on you all’s comments, the movie just seemed too disorganized & under developed for me to pay to see. Also, I’ve avoided the video clips of gunned down black people since Trayvon Martin, & I intend to keep it that way, if possible.
In relation to slavery, I read Coates’ recent book… it was beautiful. Shortly after, wanting to stick w/ that same genre, I picked up, “The Book of Night Women,” by Marlon James. I was extremely excited to learn about slavery from the Jamaican perspective… but it was just too harsh… every other sentence had “nigger” or some other form of degradation & torture. Like you, I don’t mind learning about slavery & its brutality… but, I don’t want torture porn.
Hey y’all!
Really enjoyed your solo review Rod and this one with Bassey! It was really funny hearing y’all tiptoe around this movie so you wouldn’t get canceled. Smh. But I feel you.
I had no intention of seeing this movie, so it was affirming when you both confirmed what I thought this movie was going to be. I knew from the trailer that this wasn’t for me, and definitely wasn’t going to be the “love†story that some folks were saying it was going to be. I’ll wait for Issa in “The Photographâ€, even though she looks like she’s going to be trying to overcome her “mommy issuesâ€. But I can deal with that. Too many women on my timeline felt tricked into seeing this movie and were appalled that a Black woman would write a film like this.
But, I felt they made it pretty clear what this movie was going to be. Maybe it’s because I’m used to dissecting trailers or I’m just too jaded for my own good.
From y’alls review this sounds like the film Woke Black Twitter Wrote.
Love y’all,
Iman
Hey Rod and Karen! I’m not usually a person who writes comments but I felt so strongly about this particular movie I thought I would leave a comment (go easy on me please). Although I thought the movie was beautifully shot, absolutely gorgeous in scenery and reminded me of how beautiful the south is, how beautiful black culture is I feel like I was gaslighted by the internet and the previews about this movie. I appreciate ya’ll comments about this is not a love story, because it’s not. I’m not sure the characters even know each others last names. And I’m a bit concerned that so many of us don’t know what love is, that we confuse going through traumatic event and bonding because of that event, with falling/being in love. There are so many of us who are in toxic relationships (not limited to romantic) because we confuse a shared trauma as being in love.
Second, when I saw that child pull a gun on the police officer and shoot him in the head (spoiler) I let out an audible gasp. I still don’t understand that scene, and hoping that one day Waithe will give us a a bit more insight on what was the intention of that scene and why it was juxtaposed to the sex scene. I felt all that scene did was reinforced that our children are dangerous and that BLM is radicalizing them into sociopathic stone cold killers ready to die for the “cause.” I do not believe if this was a white…or even just a non-black writer, woke twitter would be letting that slide.
Lastly the film left me wondering a couple of things 1) have we equated a movie that moves you to tears at the end of it as a good movie? Are we so disconnected with our own emotions that if someone makes us emote that that in itself is a good thing? 2) Does Lena Waithe have anyone around her that is pushing her to do her best work? It make me think of Ta-Nehisi Coats and how his editors still push him to do his best work, and still know when to say naw this ain’t cooked enough yet, you need to go back and try it again. Which is why he is still pushing out quality writing in-spite of his fame and 3) Is it time to call in (privately and respectfully) some of the folks that are using activism as a marketing tool, but are not really wanting and willing to do the work necessary for black liberation (for lack a better word). If this movie was marketed as fictional tale of these two black folks in a terrible situation, instead of a movie that has an intention to make a statement about the state of affairs we see everyday, I would have gave it a lot more grace on the plot.
Anyways that was a lot there, my apologies for being so long winded and any grammar mishaps.
Stay warm
nourbese (nor-bay-say)