Emergency (2022)

[StatisticalOutlier]

Still can't embed trailers.  It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVi9hlvQOrg

It's in limited release in theaters, and on Amazon Prime.  I liked it a lot.

Two black college guys come home to find a white girl passed out on the floor in their living room, and instead of calling 911 because black guys standing over a passed out white girl, decide to take her to the hospital themselves.  Kind of like Superbad, one night gone very awry, but with social commentary.  And with the changing friendship angle from Superbad, which I totally believed.

And it has RJ Cyler, who I never recognize but look up when I get home and go, "Oh, that's who that is."  The one who so hilariously said "punk ass cat" in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  I really like that kid.

And if you are lucky enough to see it, be aware that there's a short scene in the credits. 

[Bastet]

I'm glad you created this thread; I saw the short film several years ago, but had somehow managed to miss reading that they'd made a feature length version.  It looks great from the trailer, so I will definitely add this to my Prime watch list.

[Bastet]

I watched it last night, and it's great!  The friendship between Kunle and Sean is really well done, so that both the fight in the forest and the reconciliation in the lab play perfectly.  The film is every bit as much a love letter to friendship (including being your brother's keeper) as it is a dissertation on racial prejudice and profiling, and both themes are well done.

I love that them shutting the door on the sister's horrible apology isn't the end, instead we close on the trauma triggered in Kunle upon hearing a police siren.  Emma survived and thanked them for helping her, they didn't get arrested or shot, the trio's friendship is deepened, Kunle's bacteria survived so he's going to Princeton -- and a happy game of Jenga gets stopped cold by a common sound.  Kunle's life is forever altered, because he tried to help in the way he thought was safest for everyone.  The tag in the credits is fun, but I'm glad the film itself ends as it does. 

The humor is nicely placed throughout, as are all the heart-dropping danger signals, like the tail light getting broken, the Neighborhood Watch sign, etc.  We can see the disaster unfolding, with choice after increasingly desperate choice, yet it's always clear why those choices are made in the moment -- they keep making things worse, yeah, but they're choosing from an increasingly limited number of shitty options.   

I love all the ways we see characters displaying the prejudices they think themselves so above; my favorite is the white couple with a Black Lives Matter sign in their yard filming the guys and ordering them off a public street because they assume they're engaged in a drug deal. 

The overall pacing has a few lags, and the film probably should have been a good ten minutes shorter, but it's a very worthwhile watch.  I wasn't familiar with any of the cast, but there were some impressive performances.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Yay!  Somebody actually saw one of the obscure movies I start threads on.  And liked it!  And wrote an intelligent post about it (which is more than I can do).

I originally saw a preview in a theater and I thought it looked good, but I'm sensitive to suspense and peril so I didn't make a mental note to go, but then I saw some reviews and thought I could handle it.  I'm so glad I did.

One thing I noticed was that all the plaques commemorated the first black student to do whatever, but theirs said the first men(?) to do it, and I was thinking it was because Carlos isn't black, so they had to finesse their way around it. 

And something else I noticed in the youtube comments about the trailer (yes, I braved youtube comments) was people's glee at whatever video game it was that Carlos was playing.  I never would have noticed that and still don't know what the video game is but I appreciate little touches like that. 

Seek out RJ Cyler.  He's a keeper.

[Spartan Girl]

After I saw the trailer, I knew I had to watch it, and it did not disappoint.

The road to hell truly is paved with good intentions. I would like to believe that Kunle was right and they should have just called 911 and saved themselves the trouble, I’ve seen too many news stories and Sean assuming the worst as overreacting. That being said, I did love Kunle telling off Carlos and Sean for their horrible idea of dumping Emma, an unconscious girl, at a frat party.

And while I can understand Maddie’s genuine fear and concern for assuming the worst, do not give them some lameass written apology speech. So yeah, they were right to slam the door in her face for that.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

That being said, I did love Kunle telling off Carlos and Sean for their horrible idea of dumping Emma, an unconscious girl, at a frat party.

That goes back to what I said about loving how many characters who think they're aware of their privilege and doing the work turn right around and showcase prejudice (like the BLM couple) -- the film's heroes are included in that group.  The guys constantly correct their use of gender slurs, but - beyond the fact they use them in the first place - Kunle was the only one who understood all along the danger Emma would be in if they didn't deliver her to a safe space.  (Does her danger outweigh theirs, especially when she's the one who inadvertently set it in motion?  That's one of the interesting themes of the film.  But he acknowledges hers from jump; the other guys have to be clued in.)

Maddie is terrible - but so perfectly played in her terribleness - and I like that Alice isn't without prejudicial notions, either; she calls Maddie out as having brought a high schooler to a frat party and neglected her for two hours, she tells Maddie the guys' explanation of how they wound up with Emma tracks, she's the one who uses her white privilege to take one for the team and be the one to first step out of the van when the cops descend on them, but she's also completely dumbfounded when she finds out Carlos and Rafael are cousins.

Emma is largely a semi-conscious albatross dragged around, so I'm impressed by the actor's performance during her moment of complete lucidity, when she comes to and finds herself in a van with three unknown guys in the middle of the woods.  Her reaction to them comes across as the only one not influenced by their race; she'd believably have been just as freaked out at having discovered herself in the same situation with three white dudes.

But would her earlier, semi-aware scenes with Carlos alone (when the other two went into Sean's brother's house), in which she's comfortable and pleasant, have played the same with Kunle or Sean instead?  How much of it is that it's one guy versus three?  How much is her differing degree of awareness?  And how much is the differing degree of racism, that a white woman would respond differently to a Latin man than a Black one?

All this to say I think this film is well served by being written by a Latin woman and directed by a Black man.

[Spartan Girl]

13 hours ago, Bastet said:

That goes back to what I said about loving how many characters who think they're aware of their privilege and doing the work turn right around and showcase prejudice (like the BLM couple) -- the film's heroes are included in that group.  The guys constantly correct their use of gender slurs, but - beyond the fact they use them in the first place - Kunle was the only one who understood all along the danger Emma would be in if they didn't deliver her to a safe space.  (Does her danger outweigh theirs, especially when she's the one who inadvertently set it in motion?  That's one of the interesting themes of the film.  But he acknowledges hers from jump; the other guys have to be clued in.)

And that’s the most frustrating part of the world we live in: they shouldn’t have to worry about possible getting shot by the police just by calling 911, and they shouldn’t have to worry about Emma being safe in a party full of people. If more people were like Kunle and did the right thing…I know how incredibly stupid that sounds, but I wish we lived in a better world.

Edited May 30, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[StatisticalOutlier]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

Emma is largely a semi-conscious albatross dragged around, so I'm impressed by the actor's performance during her moment of complete lucidity,

Even before her moment of lucidity, I was impressed with her portrayal of a semi-conscious albatross.  It seems like it would be easy to be a lump, but I don't think it is.

And how did she get up in that tree?  It was little moments like that that made the movie even better.

Did y'all notice the scene near the end where there was a drunk student falling down in the grass near where our guys were walking, and one of them cautioned, "Not our problem" or something like that?  I was glad I had a caption device because I'm not sure I would have noticed they said something about it.

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

All this to say I think this film is well served by being written by a Latin woman and directed by a Black man.

I'd say it's vital that it was written by a Latin woman and directed by a Black man, or maybe vice versa would work.  At least it means we can avoid that debate and talk about what's on the screen.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Did y'all notice the scene near the end where there was a drunk student falling down in the grass near where our guys were walking, and one of them cautioned, "Not our problem" or something like that? 

Yep, one of those little moments that made the film great.

[susiamburgey]

On 5/27/2022 at 3:39 AM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Still can't embed trailers.  It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVi9hlvQOrg

It's in limited release in theaters, and on Amazon Prime.  I liked it a lot.

Two black college guys come home to find a white girl passed out on the floor in their living room, and instead of calling 911 because black guys standing over a passed out white girl, decide to take her to the hospital themselves.  Kind of like Superbad, one night gone very awry, but with social commentary.  And with the changing friendship angle from Superbad, which I totally believed.

And it has RJ Cyler, who I never recognize but look up when I get home and go, "Oh, that's who that is."  The one who so hilariously said "punk ass cat" in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  I really like that kid.

Besides I found this post https://supremestudy.com/essay-examples/black-death/ from these guys where they talk about black death, I think this information would be good for them to make a new sharing about 'black', this would be something new and interesting, moreover I think that this way we will manage to pay attention to people of race.

And if you are lucky enough to see it, be aware that there's a short scene in the credits. 

It seems this has become my favorite video, on lang this one I think it would be good to denote the fact that it conveys the pain of black people very well. I appreciate your mentioning of RJ Cyler's performance, and it's always interesting to discover talented actors we may not have recognized before. Thank you for the heads up about the scene in the credits as well.

Edited May 1, 2023 by susiamburgey