This would've worked better as a short film.

| Jan 11, 2024

Director Carey Williams and writer K.D. Dávila ably balance the film’s gross-out humor with its commentary on racial double standards...and lead actor RJ Cyler steals the show with movie star charisma.

| Dec 14, 2022

Director Carey Williams is a gifted multitasker. Emergency never loses the flavour of comedy; it can also be deeply astringent.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 10, 2022

The biggest disappointment of Williams’ film... is its unwillingness to disrupt, with full and heavy weight, the exact things that it critiques.

| Jun 2, 2022

I think it's a really strong film. It's kind of hilarious watching a movie where a passed out girl is treated like she's a suitcase with a nuclear bomb.

| Jun 1, 2022

Emergency smacked me in the face.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 26, 2022

Emergency ably balances its lighter humor with heavy themes about the dangers inherent to merely existing as a Black man in America, where those meant to protect citizens are often the ones threatening their lives.

| Original Score: B+ | May 22, 2022

A switchback ride that lurches between comedy and nerve-shredding tension, but loses focus in an extraneous coda.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2022

Williams handles this complex material with a sure touch, and channels a lot of works by past masters (everyone from Spike Lee and Hype Williams to Wong Kar-Wai and Jonathan Demme) without seemingly merely derivative or show-offy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 20, 2022

Whether you see it as a genre-bending comedy, a so-painful-it-hurts social satire, or an unclassifiable commentary on contemporary life, Emergency demands your attention.

| May 20, 2022

For all its influences and roots in similar types of comedies, “Emergency” is an original work, very much of its time.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 20, 2022

Williams and Davila: together or apart, they’re dangerously talented.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2022

The characters, despite the seeming superficiality of the genre, are beautifully drawn by the cast and by the director, Carey Williams.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2022

Emergency sometimes struggles to combine its cinematic form with its messaging. But there are just enough moments where it all comes together to make it feel like worthwhile viewing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 19, 2022

"Emergency"... carries a lot of baggage, making its point by circling it, underlining it and pointing at it with a neon sign.

| Original Score: C+ | May 19, 2022

She slow-paced journey from setting to setting builds the tension a bit unevenly in service of the film’s themes. These bumps in the road leave Emergency imperfect, but it’s still a chaotic and thoughtful ride worth hitching onto.

| May 19, 2022

Thanks to some good filmmaking decisions, “Emergency” is rife with tart observations about campus life.

| May 19, 2022

A funny, adroitly executed satire that manages to find genuine laughs in the unlikeliest places.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 19, 2022

It’s one of the most potent commentaries about racism and brotherhood bonds yet.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 19, 2022

Kunle, Sean and Carlos’ nightlong predicament becomes increasingly anxiety inducing and only slightly less horrifying than what happened to the Black guy in the original “Night of the Living Dead.”

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2022