Sundance Film Festival 2022: Emergency Brings Realistic Take To Party Comedy Genre
Talk about a road trip from hell!
Director Carey Williams made his Sundance debut last year with R#J, a diverse and experimental social media-first take on Romeo and Juliet. Now he returns with Emergency, a timely social commentary satire that tackles racism and white privilege throughout one wild college night.
Based on Williams’ 2018 short film of the same name, Emergency centers around the friendship between Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) who are opposing forces. Kunle is a buttoned up and studious biology student from a wealthy African American family with plans to go to Princeton, while his best friend Sean is all about getting high and partying. As they near graduation, they plan to make history as the first Black men to successfully complete the “Legendary Tour,” attending a string of frat parties that take place in one night. Their plans go off the rails when they arrive home to get ready for the night only to find a random white girl passed out in their living room. Kunle wants to call the police, but Sean is scared that as Black and Latino men they will be blamed. Alongside their gamer roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), they struggle to make a decision about what to do, bringing up a film-long debate on the system and if its rigged against Black people. Ultimately, they decide to drive this girl, who they dub Goldilocks (Maddie Nichols), to the hospital. What ensues is a stressful road comedy that expertly explores racial biases as they try to get this woman help without compromising themselves in the process.
Emergency has a lot to say about the way America views young Black and Latino men from a variety of perspectives. Sean is wary of this whole journey from the beginning, knowing they will have a harder time being believed. Kunle hasn’t had to deal with the same struggles as Sean due to his privileged background. He is convinced that being smart and “doing the right thing” will prevent him from having to deal with systemic racism, but finds out that’s not true throughout the course of the night. Cyler and Watkins do a great job of playing off of each other and it’s refreshing to see their different experiences as African American men. Chacon is a scene stealer as the sweet and caring Carlos, and Nichols brings both humor and heart with her drunken mumbled insecurities about her relationship with her sister. Things escalate even further when Goldilock’s sister Maddy (Sabrina Carpenter) finally tracks them down and makes assumptions about what is really happening.
The film goes from humorous to frustrating to horrifying as the miscommunications get more and more dramatic. Emergency evokes a claustrophobic feeling, of being trapped in a situation you can’t escape because of something out of your control, your skin color. It can be easy for someone to misinterpret the scene and ruin these young men’s lives due to racism and stereotypes. At the same time, we’ve been living through the #MeToo Movement, so it is scary to see a young wasted girl with men she doesn’t know, regardless of skin color.
With a stellar young cast and focus on racial commentary, Emergency brings a fresh and realistic take to the traditionally white-led party comedy genre and solidifies Williams as a director to watch. Following the film’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2022, Emergency opens in theaters on May 20 and hits Amazon Prime on May 27.
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