Comedies about the wild days of high school and college have long been scattered throughout the cinematic landscape, like the red cups on the porch of the Confraternity house. The “Animal House” antiques of the late 1970s were replaced by a series of bizarre 80’s films such as “Porky’s,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and “Revenge of the Nehs.” In the 90’s, “American pie” and “I can’t wait” appeared. But historically, it was the character of color that was often overlooked, on the sidelines, and punch lines in these films.
Spike Lee’s “School Days” (1988) was a rare exception, with a focus on non-white casts. But the college comedy “Urgent” (Streaming on Amazon), I would like to add something fresh to the genre, create a race, and add recognition derived from being a person of color in a particular environment, central plot point. The protagonist experiences a wild night, but not the way they wanted.
The film starring Donald Elise Watkins and RJ Cyler as two companions who want to be the first black men on campus to complete a college party circuit called the Legendary Tour. But when they find a young white woman fainted in their home, the plan goes south. They have to try to understand what to do with other roommates (Sebastian Chacon). Because for the three people of color, calling a police officer in this situation is a dangerous option.
The creators of “emergency” understand this tricky calculation. The film was written by Mexican-American KD Davila and directed by black Carey Williams.Their characteristics emerged from Their 2018 short, Winner of the South by Southwest and Sundance Film Festival. In a video interview, the two talked about building humor out of intense situations and how British comedy came to influence the film.
Here is an edited excerpt from the conversation.
Were there any specific elements in this movie that you would like to see from the high school or college comedy genre?
KDDÁVILA On the writing side, definitely. In many respects, it was an opportunity to destroy many of those metaphors. I think we all grew up looking at everything like “Superbad” and “Booksmart”. But the fact that those movie bets are mostly emotional has always been interesting to me. They are never very expensive. And this movie was an opportunity to take a lot of things seriously.
Our characters want to join one of those party comedies, just as they want to join a “super bud” or something, but instead to a kind of thriller. became.
What do you think is the center of the movie?
Davira We wanted to make a movie about perception and the burden of color people who always have to predict how they are perceived. And that’s where a lot of humor and drama is born in the film: they must always keep anticipating how they are perceived.
How did you work here to balance the tones of comedy and drama?
Carrie Williams To me, this movie has always been like a love story about the two guys and their friendship. And that was the gateway to balancing the tone of this movie during the night. By focusing on this friendship, humor will come from how they interacted with each other about their different worldviews about how to handle the situation.
Did you have a movie reference in your mind when making this?
Williams I didn’t want to be influenced by that, so I tried not to feel like I was having a conversation with this movie on purpose. When I made this, I felt the essence of Spike Lee’s work. But I didn’t want to feel like a college comedy movie. I wanted it to feel very authored, like a movie. Movies featuring young blacks, especially college comedies, aren’t as cinematic as they need to be in the world. But what’s interesting is that even after making the movie, I still feel that it has a synergistic effect with this movie, so I keep thinking about “YTu Mamá También”. But I think I didn’t think about that when I made the movie.
Davira When I entered college, I started watching a lot of British comedy. And I think British comedy works like a horror thriller. It’s like a fear of embarrassment.And what you always think of this appear.. So I think watching a lot of British comedy had a big impact on this movie. It probably sounds very strange given the subject matter and final content of the movie.
What is your favorite high school or college comedy?
Williams “Strange science.” The movie is ridiculous, but I’ve seen it many times.
Davira This isn’t a high school or college comedy, but it’s definitely a late-blooming adult story. “Sean of the Dead”. I really like it. It works on so many levels.
