Spring Break, Sprung and Broken
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
(Sorry to use a red herring, but I’m not exploring Top Gun: Maverick yet, just jerking your chain a bit.)
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Given its “grand opening” ($160.5 million domestically [U.S.-Canada], $300 million globally) I’m sure you’d expect me to review Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski) as ace-pilot Pete Mitchell “Cruise’s” back onto the big screen in a very-long-delayed-follow-up to the 1986 original (Tony Scott), but given the ongoing COVID surge in my San Francisco area (worst in the state currently) I didn't think it was a good idea to join a large theater crowd just yet (maybe in a week or so when audiences have thinned out a bit; until then I’ll at least give you the trailer) because I doubted I could find a screening with lots of empty seats. That probably would have been easier with the parallel-debut of The Bob’s Burgers Movie (Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman), based on the long-running FOX TV animated hit (I’m a regular viewer; it’s a weird series, but I know I’ll see this movie eventually, maybe on streaming where I won’t be unnerved by huge theatrical visuals of a low-tech-cartoon; many were willing to do so, though, as it made $14.8 million domestically, another $910.7 thousand from international markets); however, I skipped it too so wonderful-wife-Nina and I could do another bit of streaming to avoid the crowds, allowing us to put to use the hefty cash we’ve already given to the Berkeley (CA) Repertory Theater’s 2022-’23 schedule with their first of the new season, Octet (Dave Malloy) available to be seen in live and video versions.
Well, in that we’d already paid for it in one form or another I guess we owed it to ourselves to watch all of Octet, but, however strange I might think the antics of the Belcher family might be in … Burgers … they’re near-Shakespearian (or at least Tennessee Williams-ian) compared to Octet, a musical (apparently, … Bob’s … is too, to the diminished-delight of at least one reviewer) about an AA-type-group-meeting of Internet-users/addicts which tells me I’m either of the wrong age, the wrong level of device-usage, or the wrong cluster of interests to even care much about what goes on in this play (especially its music; some of the dialogue's clever), but Nina and I endured its feels-like-it’s-much-longer-but-only-runs-105-minutes-contents, hoping something better might emerge (nope). Yet, I’ll turn to the San Francisco Chronicle again to let you read how their theatre critic, Lily Janiak, found more value (with some reservations) than we ever will, in case this production might come your way.
However, a similar tactic of using streaming to pick up on something also available in public venues led to Amazon Prime where Emergency’s already available, despite the fact it just opened in movie houses 2 weekends ago. This experience was hugely enjoyable, although it's simultaneously disturbing/heartwarming as 3 college roommates (2 Black, 1 Latino) must face the reality of finding a White girl they know nothing about passed out on their apartment floor, then have to figure out some way of getting her medical help without the police assuming they’ve done something to her, making life miserable for these young men. There’s a good bit of humor in this film, along with pointed (sadly, accurate, as we all well know from far too many recent atrocities) content that all jells in one of the most successful stories yet of 2022. Also, here are links for the schedule of the cable network, Turner Classic Movies, which always provides a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and the JustWatch site offering you a wide selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. If you want to see what reigned at the domestic box-office last weekend, go here. And, when you’re done with the usual parts of this posting, scroll on down to the very end if you wish for a couple more of my favorite songs, which have now been added to the ongoing-blog-closing-cluster.
Emergency (Carey Williams) rated R 105 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins), an aspiring scientist, is best friends/roommate with fellow (fictional) Buchanan U. senior Sean (RJ Cyler), whose aspiration is for them to become the first Black men to successfully navigate the Legendary Tour's 7 frat parties (you have to acquire hard-to-come-by-tickets for even 1 of these events, let alone all 7, so Sean’s very proud of having gotten the whole package for himself and Kunle) on the night Spring Break begins so they’ll be able to get a plaque on the Black students’ Wall of Firsts as another breakthrough of accomplishing something on this mostly-White campus. We begin by seeing them in a classroom run by a British woman who wants her students to explore why the vicious n-word still has impact/power in the 21st century, but neither of our guys have much to offer to her queries. After class Sean’s angry that she actually said the word several times, finds it disrespectful, although Kunle’s less-troubled, noting this particular day had a trigger warning on the syllabus, doesn’t feel he’s been hassled that much in his life (he’s grown up more comfortably than Sean [doctor-parents]), causing Sean to call him an “Oreo,” named after the cookie that’s black on both ends but with a white filling in the middle. Nevertheless, Sean’s more focused on the strategy for getting through their intense night of partying while Kunle’s making observations on a bacteria project he hopes to get published, giving him a further leg up on going to Princeton next fall to study for a Ph.D. (he gets a call from Mom excited about her son becoming a doctor, even as he tries to explain to her he won’t be “that kind of doctor”).
When they set out on their adventure, though, Kunle’s freaks out because maybe he didn’t lock the lab refrigerator containing his experiment, cold needed to keep the bacteria alive, so he insists on going back to insure he did it. On the way, though, they stop by their apartment, shocked to find a young White female (Maddie Nichols) passed out on the floor. Their other roomie, Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), a shy guy immersed in video games, knows nothing about it so they have to hurriedly figure out a way to get her some medical attention. Kunle wants to call 911, but Sean (who has a cousin shot by the police—just in his butt; he didn’t die but has to use a colostomy bag, indicative of the humor that permeates roughly the first 2/3 of this story) insists that cops coming to a place where 3 guys with darker skins standing over an unconscious White female will bring nothing but trouble for them. They try calling the few White students they know to do the 911 report yet no one’s available; desperately, they decide to drive her to the hospital but for some reason decide it might be best to go to a big frat gathering, Omicron (what?), and clandestinely leave her there for someone else to find.
While Kunle’s scouting out a route for them to walk their comatose charge to a quiet spot, though, Sean has to take a leak, uses this frat’s prized totem as his target, so they must rush off with objects thrown at them breaking one of their taillights, another concern cops will quickly stop them, find the girl, so they go to Sean’s brother, Terence’s (Robert Hamilton), place in an attempt to borrow his car. While Sean and Kunle are inside, though, the girl comes to a bit, tells Carlos she’s a 17-year-old-high-school senior; when he goes in to pass on this news, no one connected with Terence (including him) wants anything to do with this. Meanwhile, in another plot line, we’re back to that frat party where Maddie (Sabrina Carpenter), realizes she’s lost contact for a couple of hours with younger sister Emma (who, of course, is the mystery girl in the other plotline); in a panic with help from her friends Alice (Madison Thompson) and Rafael (Diego Abraham)—turns out later he’s Carlos’ cousin—Maddie uses the signal from Emma’s phone to track her, which leads to a wooded area where our guys have stopped to help Emma into the foliage so she can pee. Maddie and her buds catch up, assume the worse, call 911 before all’s out in the open with Kunle and Carlos trying to explain their innocence while Sean leaves, goes to the Underground, part of the Tour. As Carlos, Rafael, Maddie, Alice, and Kunle pile into the van to head off to the hospital cop cars arrive, but our stressed-collegians keep driving as Kunle’s frantically administering CPR to Emma. When they get to the emergency room, Emma’s rushed inside but the police harass the rest, especially terrified Kunle, afraid, if he survives this night, his acceptance at Princeton may be revoked due to an unjust-arrest.
⇒Finally, it’s all straightened out, so Carlos and Kunle go back to the lab where Kunle finds Sean propped against the refrigerator door to keep the bacteria cold. Kunle determines his experiment’s OK, apologizes to Sean for not realizing how dangerous this supposedly-safe-society is for a Black man who has to deal with the assumptive-power of White cops and for not telling him they won’t be together next fall when he heads off to grad school. Sean already knew of Kunle’s Princeton plans (on the basis of the envelope that arrived, even though it could have been a rejection?), just wants his friend to be a respected-researcher so all’s well between them. Next day, Maddie and Emma come to apologize, the latter for stumbling into the wrong place (Maddie lives just a couple of doors down), the former for cruel things said last night before knowing the truth. Kunle accepts Emma’s words but closes the door on Maddie before she’s done, then is upset when he hears a police siren until it fades away. During the credits is a brief scene: Sean and Kunle sneak into the Wall of Firsts to add their plaque (of them and Carlos), as the first to put their own plaque up on the great Wall.⇐
So What? The original version of Emergency was a short (11:39)—see it here—also directed by Williams, script also by the feature’s screenwriter, KD Dávila, with the basic plotline of college-guys-of-color in a quandary about what to do regarding the unconscious White girl on their living-room-floor but none of the extensive plot additions in the feature. It did quite well, winning a Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival; this expanded follow-up was a hit at the 2022 Sundance gala also, winning Dávila the coveted Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (named for the writer of many film/TV scripts, overcoming blacklisting in the 1950s by later winning Oscars for Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Cowboy [John Schlesinger, 1969] and Original Screenplay for Coming Home [Hal Ashby, 1978]). There’s a good bit of humor early on in this longer version of Emergency concerning the different worldviews of best-buds Sean and Kunle, with even some laughs (for the demented, like me) about passed-out-Emma—once we’re clear she’s alive (with Sean beseeching Kunle not to touch her as they may be in a crime scene, yet he’s got to confirm she has a pulse)—barfing, with one of the guys’ cell phones landing right in her puke-pool (this sort of thing happens again later when Carlos unknowingly gives her some of Sean’s powerful “death punch,” bringing on a further alteration to their already-beat-up-van), but once most of our characters get Emma to the hospital it’s clear Sean wasn’t being paranoid about likely police response, even as his departure from the group left Kunle as the only Black man there for the focused verbal abuse, along with a gun being pointed at his head even though he lay helpless on his stomach on the ground (I don’t think you need further explanations to know what that scene evokes).
I’ll admit that I join the up-front-clarifications of critic Courtney Lanning (details in this review’s next section) who, as a White female, doesn’t pretend to know fully what it’s like to experience such abusive police behavior nor carry the trauma of knowing such events could happen to you just because of the color of your skin. As a older White guy watching this film I too found it to be as authentic as I can understand such events to be in that confrontational scene (as well as in the prior-paranoia always in the forefront of Sean’s concerns about the cops), appropriately written by a Mexican-American woman, directed by a Black man. Surprisingly enough (to me, at least), another critic, Valerie Complex (again, more details soon), a Black woman, isn’t impressed much by what she finds in Emergency, further verifying tastes, perceptions, interpretations aren’t monolithic for any group—Black, White, female, male, etc.—nor should we ever expect them to be. All I can say is I thoroughly enjoyed Emergency, found its settings and depictions on and around a contemporary college campus to be recognizable (even in the extreme), and agree with Williams (see the interview as the second item connected to this film in the Related Links section farther below) that this narrative is ultimately about the underlying strong bonds of true friendship even when surface events seem to push those involved to the breaking point. This may not be a universally-attractive-story—with some maybe not being in tune with druggie-Sean while others might be troubled by how neglectful, then improperly-hysterical Maddie was about the events involving her sister—but I hope many of us could relate to its issues, conflicts, and resolutions even if you have to be an old weirdo like me to laugh at a drunken girl’s vomiting episodes (or maybe you just have to have experienced [like me] what it takes to get to that place to be able to find any embarrassed-humor in its depiction).
Bottom Line Final Comments: As noted so very far above, this film did open in some domestic theaters recently (May 20, 2022) before becoming available just on Amazon Prime Video, but I find no mention of how it may have done or is still doing at the box-office (it’s playing in a couple of theaters in my San Francisco area; it might be on the big screen somewhere in your vicinity as well) so if you’re interested (and I hope you are) you’ll likely have to stream it on Prime for no extra cost if you’re a subscriber to that service. (Although they charge a $139 annual fee so “free” may seem like just another 4-letter word in this context—but wait! They’ve got a 30-day-free-trial-offer! Well worth your time to take advantage of it.) The CCAL joins me in encouraging your viewership, with the critics at Rotten Tomatoes presenting a 93% cluster of positive reviews while the let-me-think-about-that-a-bit-more-group at Metacritic comes up with a 75% average score (better than most anything both they and I have reviewed so far this year; more details on both of these critics’-accumulation-sites in Related Links). For example, James Berardinelli of ReelVIews says: “[It] gives viewers things to think about, which is an infinitely preferable alternative to the kind of film where it’s possible to sense the mass demise of brain cells. […] Despite the comedy, the screenplay poses some serious questions that can’t simply be brushed aside. There’s also something uneasy in the friendship between Sean and Kunle (with the former thinking the latter is “too white”) that might have benefited from a deeper exploration. Ultimately, Emergency doesn’t claim to have all the answers, which is why its watchability extends beyond its core audience to anyone willing to give it a shot.” Or Courtney Lanning of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “[…] I offer two disclaimers now. First, I am a white woman, and there are obviously limits to what I can relay about the themes of race in this film. Second, 'Emergency' should come with trigger warnings, particularly for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) individuals who have had traumatic experiences with law enforcement. […] I'm not exaggerating when I say it contains one of the greatest performances I've seen in my life. [👈 referring to Watkins, …] The most interesting thing I can say about "Emergency" is it's important, it's relevant, and there's too much hard truth packed into its 105-minute runtime to walk away from without learning something about the Black experience in America.” Quite well put.
Of course, one person’s tasty-liverwurst-snack (paired best with a big-ice-cold-beer, I’d say) is another’s dreaded-fried-liver-dinner (my horror growing up, with only massive dollops of catsup to help out) so consider Valerie Complex in Deadline: "These types of films can be grating because they try to tackle so many issues at once instead of perfecting one concept and building a world around that. [¶] There is some magic here, but the misplaced laughs and the hallow characters make it arduous to connect with the film on any level.” Decide what you will about whether Emergency might appeal to you or not (I vote for the former), assuming access to Amazon Prime (free or not) even factors into your decision, then consider giving it a look. Or, maybe, you’d just be satisfied with listening to my chosen review-wrap-up of a Musical Metaphor, in this case Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” (on their 1969 Green River album) at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bipwRzgfE-4 (a live Jan. 31, 1970 performance in my neighborhood, the Oakland Arena, although the tag on the video says the Coliseum [next-door-baseball-stadium] so maybe it was at a huge outdoor concert for this local band gone big-time by this point; I couldn’t say as I was still in Austin, TX at the time into my final semester as a college undergrad, just like Sean and Kunle) because it’s clear the events of this night turned really bad for all of our main characters; while nothing actually proved to be “bound to take your life” (although Emma’s overdose came close) there was plenty of symbolic “nasty weather” for all of them seemingly because of “a bad moon on the rise,” leading into a spring break they’ll all never forget even as our main 3 guys originally hoped to end the night barely remembering anything—except how they truly earned their Wall of Firsts plaque.
SHORT TAKES
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Here's a few extra items for you: (1) How the Top Gun: Maverick cast trained to fly fighter jets; (2) Remembering Ray Liotta's 10 best performances.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
Here’s more information about Emergency:
https://www.emergencymovie.com and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P4BY3WR/?ref=DVM_US_DL_SL_GO_AST_EMER22_mkw_sPbF5Y7X1-dc&mrntrk=pcrid_599798741187_slid__pgrid_136769784173_pgeo_9032009_x__ptid_kwd-378477428555&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw7TMoJuI-AIVwhB9Ch22-Qj3EAAYASAAEgKmBPD_BwE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO7-IsOn1zM (18:08 interview with director Carey Williams and actors Donald Elise Watkins, Madison Thompson, RJ Cyler, Sabrina Carpenter,
Sebastian Chacon, Maddie Nichols)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emergency_2022
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/emergency
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can be raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna." However, if the day does come when Nina has to present these above thoughts (beginning with “If we did talk”) and this music after my demise I might as well make this into a somewhat-Top 10 of songs that mattered to me by adding The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life," because that chaotic-orchestral-finale sounds like what the death experience may be like, and the Beach Boys’ "Fun Fun Fun" because this gathering may have gotten morbid so I’d like to sign off with something upbeat to remember me (the Galveston non-surfer) by.
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