One of them comedies
One of Them Days is a treat — an honest-to-God comedy with setups, punchlines, and performances calibrated to land them. It’s not postmodern or high-concept or reactionary. Just a professionally made, theatrically released comedy. A comedy movie! Have mercy! I know I get a little too excited when I watch one of these for its sheer existence, but it’s not especially common in this streaming-era comedy desert.
The film follows a pair of young Black women barely scraping by: Dreux (Keke Palmer), a waitress, and her best friend and roommate Alyssa (SZA), an artist. “Barely scraping by” is on the verge of “out on their asses”: thanks to Alyssa’s worthless boyfriend, their rent money has vanished, and they’re about to get evicted from their busted-up apartment complex. What follows is a single-day odyssey to scrounge together $1,500 before sundown. The episodes and increasingly desperate hijinks are pretty consistently funny.
What keeps it all afloat is the chemistry between Palmer and SZA, who feel like real-deal friends even when the script errs on the silly side. Palmer is wonderfully charming (not to mention gorgeous) as she straddles a fine line between getting her big break with a job interview and landing on the street. SZA, in her film debut, holds her own, playing Alyssa as a rash mess.
Syreeta Singleton’s script is a bit overloaded in the second half — there are essentially three climaxes — but her knack for character dynamics and slangy, lived-in dialogue gives the film its voice. Pretty much every supporting actor gets at least one laugh-out-loud moment. Standup legend Katt Williams pops in as a neighborhood oracle trying to steer people clear of Chekhov’s payday loan bank. Maude Apatow, best known for cameos in movies her dad Judd directs or produces, seems to be making a real go at comedy acting. Here she is Bethany, gentrification personified. Patrick Cage brings sweetness to Maniac, Dreux’s love interest. The biggest scene stealer is Janelle James of Abbott Elementary as an incompetent blood donation tech.
The tone teeters on the edge of cartoon logic, and your mileage may vary on how much leeway you’re willing to lend it. I found myself a bit exhausted by the end. Every third scene cranks up the implausibility past the breaking point — blood bags exploding in a donation center, a gangster shootout, and a crazy fire rescue. At a minimum, it’s all diverting fun and it never tips into outright chaos, which is a credit to debut director Lawrence Lamont, who offers a light touch. Lamont is clearly inspired by bantery classics held high in some corners of Black culture, most especially Friday, an obvious comparison.
Still, that heightened energy sometimes undercuts the film’s emotional core. When One of Them Days slows down enough to let Dreux and Alyssa’s friendship develop, it’s honestly quite affecting. I actually kinda cared about them by the midway point, which makes it frustrating when their decision-making is hijacked by sitcom logic and outrageous shenanigans just to reset the clock on their crisis and stretch it out to feature length (or else offer a last-minute deus ex machina). There’s probably a smarter, cleaner version of this movie that plays more like a breezy dramedy with a minor rewrite, and I probably like that film more. But, as I said at the start, I’m here to praise the lost art of cinematic comedy, not bring it down a notch.
The happily ever after is entirely predictable, but effective in how it shows the characters thriving without sacrificing their roots: It’s not about rejecting the low-income lives they had, but building on it. It’s not deep, but it’s not dumb. It’s no best-of-the-year hopeful, and I could have used a little less busyness. But One of Them Days is one of the most simply enjoyable movies of the year so far.
Is It Good?
Good (5/8)
Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.