‘Emergency’ movie review: Carey Williams’ satire on racial politics is a knockout

Filmmaker Carey Williams’ second feature is kinetic and hilarious, while also being a rare film that gets the personal-is-the-larger-politics right

Imagine two of your friends coming home to find a mysterious drunk girl passed out, reeking of her own retching. What would you suggest they do? The most practical and instinctive reaction is to call 911, right? But what if I tell you your friends are persons of colour and the girl is White? Let me add another layer: what if that girl, in addition to being White, is underage too? Carey Williams’ second feature Emergency is a searing take on racial politics, while in the guise of a harmless buddy-cum-road movie. Smart lines and clever writing make Emergency outrageously funny in very real situations, while at the same time, it never belittles the characters or premise. Some of these jokes, drawn from the characters’ helplessness, work for the very reason that they are not aimed at them, but at the audience.

Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins), Sean (RJ Cyler) and their Latin-American friend Carlos (Sebastian Chacon) are caught in this nightmare, when Carlos, a gamer, forgets to lock their house yet again. While the more practical Kunle suggests they call 911 to help Emma (Maddie Nichols), Sean and Carlos vote against it, given the history of abuses and deaths Black people have faced from the Police Department. Williams airdrops his actors in what could be said as absurd situations making it look like a biting satire on what is real and what is not.

The soft-spoken Kunle and motor-mouthed Sean are determined to make it to their school’s Hall of Fame for completing a crazy party night. A bright student who makes it to Princeton University, Kunle comes from a privileged background; his parents are doctors, while Sean is less privileged and has seen the world for what it is. Their economic backgrounds are established right at the start and help us understand where Kunle and Sean come from, and why they do things the way they do.