One of Them Days review

ONE OF THEM DAYS: 

ONE OF THEM DAYS, YOU FIND A COMEDY THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH YOUR ASS OFF…THIS IS THAT COMEDY! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

TRISTAR PICTURES

Keke Palmer and SZA in One of Them Days

 

            You ever have one of those comedies where you see the trailer, think it looks okay but doesn’t look anything spectacular, and then you see it and it’s freaking hilarious? That’s basically what One of Them Days, the new buddy-comedy film from Lawrence Lamont in his directorial debut and produced by Issa Rae (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Barbie, American Fiction) did for me. 

            I saw the trailer for this movie probably a dozen times (maybe even more) in theaters and thought it looked fine as a dumb, buddy-comedy with Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee, Hustlers, Nope) and SZA (in her feature film debut) that’s reminiscent of movies like Friday or even The Hangover. Much to my delight, this movie exceeded my expectations in just about every way because One of Them Days is a riot. 

            I found this movie incredibly funny and a large part of that is Keke Palmer and SZA’s stellar comedic chemistry. They’re the ones who make this movie though it also has a standout Katt Williams (Friday After Next, The Boondocks, First Sunday) in his funniest role since A Pimp Named Slickback. 

            The film follows best friends and roommates, Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) living in a rundown apartment complex with a strict landlord. But when they discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, Dreux and Alyssa have until 6:00 PM to make the money back or face eviction, it’s “One of Them Days”. 

            The film also stars Williams as Lucky, Vanessa Bell Calloway (Coming to America 1 and 2, Bebe’s Kids,Harriet) as Mama Ruth, Keyla Monterroso Mejia (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Abbott Elementary, Suncoast) as Kathy, Maude Apatow (Knocked Up, Funny People, The King of Staten Island) as Bethany, Dewayne Perkins (The Blackening) as Jameel, Amin Joseph (Zane’s Sex Chronicles, Snowfall, Stuber) as King Lolo, Gabrielle Dennis (Bring It On: Fight to the Finish, Rosewood, Wendell & Wild) as Shayla, DomiNque Perry (Get Hard, American Hero, Insecure) as Shameeka, Lil Rel Howery (The Carmichael Show, Get Out, Dog Man) as The Buyer, and Janelle James (Black Monday, Abbott Elementary, The Garfield Movie) as Ruby. 

            Overall, One of Them Days is a hysterical joy ride that proves the buddy-comedy formula is still fresh after all these years. The movie hits most of the same beats you’d expect from a film like this, but what makes it work are the performances by Palmer and SZA who as I mentioned before are excellent here. 

            With the exception of a few movies, I haven’t seen that much Keke Palmer and with this being SZA’s first feature film as an actress, this is my first time seeing her onscreen and I loved watching them together in this movie. Just listening to their banter back and forth made me laugh sporadically throughout the movie and both characters offset each other perfectly with Palmer being the straight-woman in the situation while SZA is the hyperactive friend who makes mistakes but also means well, they excel at laughs and heart during the film and I completely bought them as best friends here. 

            As I said earlier, Katt Williams is a standout as this weird guy standing outside the loan office who warns Palmer and SZA not to trust them. I’m not big on many of Katt Williams’ film choices and some of his lifestyle choices, but I found him hilarious here and he delivered some of the funniest lines in the film in a role that might even put his voice work as A Pimp Named Slickback from The Boondocks to shame…yeah, I just said that! 

            The plot is very simple and isn’t trying to be overly complicated or a cinematic gamechanger, it’s just a comedy adventure about two broke girls trying to make their rent money in nine hours and the wacky shenanigans they get into along the way. A lot of the fun of this movie is seeing how deep the rabbit hole will go by the end of the film and what crazy situations Palmer and SZA have to deal with next with hilarity ensuing along the way. 

            In an age where studios try to reboot franchises by swapping the characters’ genders, I don’t think we ever need an all-female reboot of Friday because One of Them Days IS that reboot which probably wasn’t the intention but you can see the Friday influence all over the film. In this movie, the best friends are trying to make money in order to not face eviction while in Friday, it’s to avoid being killed, but it’s roughly the same sort of setup and it works. 

            One of Them Days is a hilarious ride with two incredibly funny comedic performances by Keke Palmer and SZA with moments of heart stitched between the chaos. It’s a comedy that gives you a great feeling once you leave the theater and I look forward to watching it again soon.