Emergency review – smart frat-boy satire on racial profiling

Wendy Ide
·1 min read

A pair of college buddies planning to complete the “legendary” – a tour of every frat house party in a single evening – hit an early snag when they discover a stranger passed out in the living room of their apartment. What makes it a whole lot trickier to negotiate is the fact that Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) are Black, their stoner roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon) is Latino, and the stranger is a white girl.

They might be the victims in this scenario – their rug is awash with vomit – but as Sean points out, no cop will see it that way. They decide to scoop the girl into the backseat of their car and dump her at another party, making her someone else’s problem. What follows is less a comic road movie, more a knuckle-chewing stress marathon as we watch the likable central characters attempt to surf a tsunami of terrible choices.

Carey Williams’s smart satire of the daily realities of racial profiling is a switchback ride that lurches between comedy and nerve-shredding tension, but loses focus in an extraneous coda.

  • In cinemas and on Amazon Prime from 27 May

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