Emergency Review: A College Comedy Shot Through with Life-or-Death Consequences

Emergency is uneven, but it’s grounded by dynamic performances and a vivid portrayal of the minutiae of friendship.

Emergency
Photo: Amazon Studios

The typical college comedy set over the course of one crazy night features a bunch of carefree, white dudebros flirting with the law as they party their way through increasingly wild and dangerous situations. Their success at dodging any lasting consequences is often chalked up to a mix of charm and pure, dumb luck. But Carey Williams’s incisive, if uneven, Emergency suggests that what allows these young adults to run amok and make it out virtually unscathed every time is primarily their whiteness.

The film opens as best friends Kunle (Donald Watkins) and Sean (R.J. Cyler) are approaching the end of their senior year. As Black students at a mostly white college, they’re hyper aware of their minority status, as in a scene where a white teacher lectures about the power of the N-word and the other students look their way. The sad fact that the walls of the Black Student Union are lined with plaques celebrating the first time that Black students accomplished mostly mundane achievements isn’t lost on them. It’s a hilarious scene that perfectly gets at why Kunle and Sean, for just one night, want to let loose with the rest of their peers.

Where the film’s opening act in the register of a lightweight buddy comedy, the stakes are drastically amplified when Kunle and Sean arrive home to discover a white girl, Emma (Maddie Nichols), unconscious on their living room floor. The tonal shift that’s executed here by the filmmakers is abrupt, cannily echoing how a situation like this will be instantly recognized by most young people of color as having immediate life-or-death consequences.

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The naïve Kunle’s instincts are to call 911, but the street smart Sean and their Latino roommate, Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), understand the optics of the situation, and that their skin color doesn’t grant them the benefit of the doubt from the police. It’s at this point, as Kunle and Sean band together with Carlos to drop Emma off somewhere safe without being noticed, that Williams’s film gradually pivots into thriller mode.

Just about every cut-and-dry situation in Emergency, if it doesn’t exude a chilling fatalism, finds the main characters confronting the degree to which they’re stereotyped. In one on-the-nose but effectively ironic scene, a white couple (Melanie Jeffcoat and James Healy Jr.) threatens to call the police on Sean, Kunle, and Carlos, thinking that they’re setting up a drug deal in front of their home, and as Mr. and Mrs. Karen walk away, we catch a glimpse of a Black Lives Matter sign on their lawn. Given Sean, Kunle, and Carlos’s fear of the police, the moment effortlessly conveys how the white couple’s internalized racism triggers the kids’ flight response, which perversely puts them in harm’s way given that they have a broken taillight.

While Emergency isn’t without moments of tonal whiplash, it’s grounded by Cyler and Watkins’s dynamic performances and screenwriter K.D. Dávila’s vivid portrayal of the minutiae of friendship. For one, the film’s gut-churning final act recognizes that Sean and Kunle’s terrifying encounters throughout this day will only work to solidify their bond. The film also understands, rightfully so, that Kunle confronting the sobering reality that despite all his hard work and good intentions, people will still often suspect the worst of him, is a necessary tragedy, as that kind of awareness is the backbone of survival.

Score: 
 Cast: Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, Sebastian Chacon, Sabrina Carpenter, Maddie Nichols, Madison Thompson, Diego Abraham, Summer Madison, Gillian Rabin, Patrick Lamont Jr.  Director: Carey Williams  Screenwriter: K.D. Dávila  Distributor: Amazon Studios  Running Time: 105 min  Rating: R  Year: 2022

Derek Smith

Derek Smith's writing has appeared in Tiny Mix Tapes, Apollo Guide, and Cinematic Reflections.

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