what's going on to all my movie fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott
back again with a brand new movie review and today we're breaking down the new satirical thriller by
the name of emergency now this film did premiere at the sundance film festival earlier this year it
had some pretty good buzz behind it now i recently got a chance to sit down and check it out and i'm
gonna let you know about in this review if i think it's worth your time we're gonna get into all that
here in this spoiler free review but before we get into today's discussion make sure you're checking
me out on all my other social media accounts if you all are new to the channel and love early
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sure you're liking and sharing this review but also sharing your thoughts on the film of course
once you've seen it from your pros your cons your thoughts on the performances the direction the
deeper meanings and themes you all took away from the film and ultimately did you enjoy it or did
you not enjoy it let's have those discussions in the comments below so if this is your first time
hearing about emergency you haven't seen a trailer let me give you guys a little bit of backstory
what you're gonna expect from this film ready for a night of legendary partying three college
friends must weigh their pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an unexpected situation
now for me personally after watching this film two movies came to mind and that is my favorite comedy
of all time by the name of superbad as well as a really good film by the name of blindsided now
i'm going to give you some details of why i'm kind of comparing it to those two films starting off
with just kind of highlighting how the film plays with your expectations when it comes to you think
that it's one thing and it's something completely different now tying this into super bad in my
comparison as we know great film in my opinion our two main characters are faced with hilarious
and outlandish situations that makes it become a great comedy but as well as a great coming of age
now tying into this film emergency this film shows you a little bit more of a realistic take on a bad
gone worse situation and how those situations made our characters come of age and grow wiser
when faced with these more extreme traumatic experiences now pivoting over to the tone of
this film i really enjoyed how it constantly rebuild itself we started off as a coming of age
comedy we transition into a more serious thriller and then we dive deeper into the dramatic social
commentary that this film has to add as well as being a film about friendship at the core of it
now this film does a really great job of kind of tackling different themes throughout the narrative
one thing that comes to mind is when someone else's mistake can affect others there's a lot
of social commentary that i really enjoyed how they weaved into the main narrative things that
come to mind such as i didn't mean it like that type of conversation involving different people
and how they view different situations and diving a little bit deeper into the social commentary
mostly focusing on the police and one thing that this film does a really good job at displaying is
the fitting the description or fitting the description of our suspect narrative that i
thought was really highlighted really well in this movie now one of the things i definitely want to
take a moment to kind of shine a light on which i think the film did a really good job at displaying
which is highlighting and breaking down the black experience versus a white person's experience and
how their perceptions is skewed and also changed even though their circumstances are exactly the
same now diving deeper into the black experience this film does a good job at displaying the black
stigma of the one black kid that can make it out of a situation or a black kid that has a very
promising career whether it's in their schooling in processing that and going on to do something to
change the world i think it highlights that type of narrative really well as well as the whole idea
of growing up in different circumstances growing up with less resources and how those expectations
are completely different now something that i recently spoke on this channel was one of my
favorite shows on tv which is atlanta and they had an episode regarding the whole narrative of
you're not black enough and how different black people have different experiences and sometimes
when that whole you're not black enough narrative comes about it changes how people view you you can
be skewed more towards being more of a upstanding citizen or considered a thug or considered someone
that's involved in drugs so i think the film does a really good job of kind of tackling those
narratives that we see and especially speaking from a black man those are conversations that
we see a lot being held at the forefront of the conversation now pinpoint a particular
element in this film that really stood out to me without giving away the way the film ends to me
did a perfect job in displaying not allowing someone's guilt to enter into your headspace
and not allowing someone's ignorance to affect you and one of the things that i really want
to applaud about this third act without giving nothing away at all most of these narratives
that we kind of see social commentary black men in america police being involved we sometimes have a
kind of a a sad ending a hopeless ending but again not dive into the minutia this had more of a
hopeful type of resolution to the story that i really appreciate especially when we see
in today's media and movies things don't normally end well in these type of stories and that's kind
of the last thing i want to kind of mention but i will say i really applaud how the film ended
now i want to switch over to highlighting the performances in this film starting off with rj
syler who plays sean now he is someone who's more focused on having fun and wants to embark
on this epic night of spring break parties now sean has the whole night planned out including
hitting every party which will be a legendary tour and one of the things that i love about rj
to me i consider him one of those actors that just naturally conveys confidence and charisma and he
can make you laugh and cry all in the same film and i thought that he was fantastic in this movie
but there's another actor that i want to highlight his name is donald elise watkins who i've seen in
smaller roles such as barry jenkins underground and amazon's black box now he plays kool-aid
who is down to have a fun night with his close friend but he's mostly also concerned
about finishing his project to help him get into princeton and to kind of further his education
now i was very impressed with his acting sensibilities in his film and everything that
he was given and showing the pressures of being that quote-unquote special one and making it out
of it you know and representing the black culture and going to higher lengths in their professional
career and i thought he did a great job of conveying that while at the same time being that
black person in a society that maybe be considered not black enough or not having a certain way that
he carries himself and he really to me steals the film when it comes to his experiences
especially when we get later on in the film he has a very like drama intense very sad very emotional
moment that will change his life forever and i thought that he absolutely slayed his performance
so those two performances to me really stood out but kind of get into more of the behind the scenes
element and i'm referring to the director and the screenwriter in this film williams and kd dabula
i think they did such a great job of conveying something that we don't see too often in today's
movies and films vulnerability is showing the vulnerability from black men and expressing their
emotions so i really do applaud not only a strong direction but also the great narrative and kind of
showing those things like i said that we don't see too much in today's media in movies and films so
those are really some things that i highlighted and really stood out to me in this film but let's
transition to the things that didn't necessarily work with me in this movie doing my research on
emergency i found out that this was actually a short film that turned into a feature film and
kind of knowing that i can kind of see where those elements of them kind of adding more to the film
and making it more of a feature in length and to me those moments felt a bit underdeveloped
as well as underwhelming and i'm mainly focusing on and talking about the whole emma and maddie
plot and the whole slide plot that they have with maddie trying to find emma and again not giving
too much away but when you all see it you know what i'm referring to but to me that side plot
wasn't as engaging nor as as interesting as the other elements in this film transitioning to over
other things that stood out to me that didn't necessarily work the film also has
many frustrating moments and terrible decisions from our characters and i'm not gonna lie a lot
of plot conveniences that kind of had me rolling my eyes while i was watching that now that was
a little minor thing but there were moments where i'm just like come on this is a terrible decision
by our characters but getting more into one of the things that definitely bothered me
i mentioned earlier how the film plays with their expectations and expect the unexpected
but there were moments in particular halfway through the film in which we get our stereotypical
fight between our friends that to me felt forced within the narratives just for the sake of having
drama within the film and then completely felt unnecessary and kind of derailed the momentum
into getting to more of the dramatic elements into the movie so that was something that kind of stood
out to me in regards it necessarily didn't work for me but those are my main pros those are my
main cons before i give you my overall score and if this film is worth watching if you haven't
already make sure you like the review share the review leave your thoughts in the comments and of
course subscribe to the channel overall emergency provides a comedy within the college last night
big party moments but slowly becomes at its core a story about friendship and a love story about
two friends whose friendship is challenged due to an unexpected situation and within that unexpected
situation it highlights their ideologies which in return reveals a much deeper and much
needed commentary about the experiences of some young black man in today's society overall i'm
gonna give emergency a four out of five now this film is available in limited theaters
but will be available to stream on prime video on may 27th and based on my score and based on
my opinion i recommend you all give it a watch and when you do let me know what you thought of the
film what worked what didn't work did you find to be funny did you have good emotional beats when it
came to the social commentary what other themes did you all take away from the film and like i
said did you like it did you not like it let's have those discussions in the comments thank
you all for watching my review you enjoy what i have to say here again make sure to like share
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you don't miss any of my future reviews hope you all enjoyed this conversation hope you're staying
safe as you can see on the screen now come and join the community check out my other recent
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