By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"Emergency" is a mildly entertaining coming-of-age dramedy adapted from director
Carey Williams (TV's "Giants") and screenwriter
K.D. Davila's (TV's "Salvation") 2018 short film of the same name.
RJ Cyler (TV's "The Harder they Fall") and Donald Elise Watkins ("Black Box" and TV's "The Underground Railroad") are best friends. Sean (Cyler) is somewhat of a slacker, loves to smoke weed and party. Kunle is studious and comes from a well-heeled family of African doctors. He is definitely going to follow in their footsteps.
Sean and Kunle are seniors at a predominately white college. They are looking forward to enjoying spring break, especially Sean who wants Kunle to join him and make history on campus by becoming the first Black students to attend all seven of the major fraternity parties. If anybody can do it, it's Sean. Kunle would honestly prefer to lay low and keep a watchful eye on a final class project he's working on, but it seems he has a hard time saying no to Sean. His night would have been so much better if only he had decided to fall back.
Just before their first round of festivities take place, they soon find themselves in a predicament involving a drunk white woman named Emma (Maddie Nichols, "Vendetta" and TV's "The Resident") who has passed out on their living room. Their other roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon, TV's "Penny Dreadful: City of Angels") seems to have no idea how she got there.
Now what?
They make a ton of bad decisions that include putting Emma in their van and driving around hoping they will find someone that may know her. Well, that just makes their sticky situation even worse.
While "Emergency" attempts to highlight the racism Sean and Kunle go through as Black college students, even with its satirical bent, the movie isn't always effective at meshing its comedic and dramatic elements. Consequently, its message comes across as cliched and trivial rather than eye-opening.
"Emergency" opens in limited theaters
May 20 and then debuts on
Amazon Prime May 27.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 6:20 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Watch This Trailer For
"EMERGENCY"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
