State of Emergency Motherfucker

There is a nicely dark edge to this short film, although that is not enough to sustain it. In a Belgian café, two friend of, ahem, 'non- European' backgrounds, are talking about the date one of them had the night before. The other friend pushes for details, even as the police pick them up and take them for interrogation. The absurd humor here being that the extreme nature of the police treatment, contrasting with the two friends treating it like just a normal occurrence.

Tackling police profiling in such a way does make the film worthy of note, but that note is a single one – and the film has played it early. It is amusing in the idea but it stretches it out too long; it could easily have been half the running time without any loss to impact (a gain probably). The pace of dialogue from the two leads, and the fast editing/delivery of the action, give the film an energy – and it does look professional and well made, but the content is thin. As a film on a hot topic too, it is pretty simplistic and smacks of director Petretti coming from second hand experience, and having a pretty black/white view on the issue (pardon the pun).

It is brief enough to do well online though, and doesn't last long even if it is longer than it can bare. Has plenty good about it – but it has one joke/point, and it has made it completely within the first minute and has nothing different to do after that.