Sundance 2022: Emergency Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The most effective films speak to the current condition while still being entertaining. When it comes to Emergency, adapted from the 2018 short film of the same name, it is sure to have an impact with a large portion of audiences while speaking to today’s experience for young POCs under the guise of a darkly comedic buddy thriller that is both tense and hilarious at times but always a blast to watch thanks to its trio of strong lead performances from Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, and Sebastian Chacon and their great chemistry. The film doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table in terms of the one wild night subgenre, however, what makes the film ultimately stand out is what it does with it thanks to those aforementioned three who make it all work. Regardless of whether or not audiences are in the film’s demographic, the story is likely to resonate with all audiences.

Emergency follows a trio of college students named Kunle (Watkins), Sean (Cyler), and Carlos (Chacon) whose plans for a wild night of partying as they were set to graduate get derailed after they find a mysterious unconscious girl in their house. Suffice it to say that this was a precarious situation that would be hard to explain away based on optics alone while the ramifications could cost them their future. This moral dilemma was certainly a challenge for the young men as their plans became a careful weighing of the pros and cons of calling the police to help the girl. That dilemma was not a straightforward one as part of their journey was figuring out how she got to the house and trying to help. There were definitely some silly bumps along the way, creating plenty of tense and hilarious moments as the three found themselves getting deeper and deeper as audiences are left wondering if they will survive by the end.

At the end of the day, what makes Emergency work so well is that it is easy to care about Kunle, Sean, and Carlos, however flawed and misguided they may be at times. They weren’t perfect by any means but their intentions were noble. The powerful script along with the chemistry of Watkins, Cyler, and Chacon make for a compelling dynamic that ground the film and give it humanity. They were sensational with Watkins as the student with the promising future and the most to lose, Cyler as the street-smart slacker, and Chacon as the awkward one with a heart of gold. All three fit together perfectly and play off of one another beautifully.

Overall, Emergency is an entertaining watch with something to say and it’s worth hearing.

*still courtesy of Sundance

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.