Going to the movies can feel a lot like agreeing to a blind date: It’s normal to feel a little wary — but also a bit excited — at the potential before agreeing to spend two hours with characters you don’t know. If the film is any good, it wins you over early on, enough so that you stick around to see what happens to these strangers you’ve only just met. But the dynamic works best when there’s instant chemistry, which isn’t always the case — as director Melina Matsoukas (the powerhouse behind Beyoncé’s 65-minute “Lemonade” album-cum-film) discovers in her highly anticipated narrative debut, “Queen & Slim.”

The title couple get off to a bumpy start, both with audiences and with each other, in Matsoukas’ visually arresting, socially conscious riff on the outlaw-hero genre. Two African American singles on what will prove to be one of the worst first dates in cinema history,...