THE STORY – When best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.
THE CAST – Keke Palmer & SZA
THE TEAM – Lawrence Lamont (Director) & Syreeta Singleton (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 97 Minutes
Dreux (Keke Palmer) may be scraping by, but things are looking up: The hyper-competent employee of the month at a diner franchise has worked her way up from the bottom and, at long last, has an interview for a Franchise Manager position. After getting off the night shift, she’s ready to take a nap, get dressed up, go down to headquarters, and get her bag. The only problem? Her rent hasn’t been paid, and apartment manager Uche (Rizi Timane) has had it with rent coming in late. He gives Dreux and her roommate/best friend Alyssa (SZA) until 6 pm to get him the money. As it turns out, Alyssa’s no-good mooch of a boyfriend, Keshawn (Joshua David Neal), took the money he was supposed to give to Uche and spent it on highly flammable T-shirts he plans to sell for profit. Now, the girls have nine hours to get their money and get Dreux to her interview so that they can get their lives back on track.
Like any good buddy comedy, “One of Them Days” lives and dies on the chemistry between its leads. Thankfully, Palmer and SZA have lots of it, along with an abundance of charisma that could power several movies. Whenever the film stays focused on them, it’s golden, a hangout movie with characters you actually want to hang out with. Syreeta Singleton’s screenplay forces their characters into archetypes; Dreux is the responsible, driven planner, while Alyssa is the flighty, artistic screw-up, but in the hands of these performers, they feel like so much more. It might be a bit of a stretch to say that they feel like real people, but both actors bring a sense of messy humanity to their characters that makes them feel surprisingly grounded for a comedy this broad. Unlike most opposites-attract buddy comedies, there’s a real sense of why these two women are BFFs despite their different approaches to life, and that goes a long way in making the film as enjoyable as it is.
The more episodic the film gets, however, the more it stumbles. Some of the bits work – Katt Williams as Lucky, a seemingly homeless man who appears now and then to warn the girls about something, or a scene at a blood bank with a Janelle James cameo that concludes in a spurt of superb gross-out humor – but others don’t. A bit involving a pair of Air Jordans never really amounts to much more than a means to extend the film’s length, and a scene at a payday loan office with the hilarious Keyla Monterroso Mejia ends up overstaying its welcome. Not every joke lands, which could be a death blow for most comedies, but thankfully, “One of Them Days” doesn’t rely on just jokes to entertain its audience. The film has much more of a vibe than that, cruising along with the glowing charisma and sparky chemistry of its stars.
And thank God for that! Palmer is, as ever, a heroine who’s incredibly easy to root for; you believe both that she is incredibly on top of her shit while her past has led her to have a credit score so low that the payday loan officer would laugh her out of the office. SZA, in her big-screen acting debut, is a natural in front of the camera. She gives Alyssa a down-to-earth energy and a generous spirit that makes her lapses in judgment just as frustrating as you find them coming from your own best friends. Together and separately, they’re a joy to watch. The entrepreneurial spirit that connects Dreux and Alyssa is reflected in the overall filmmaking spirit that permeates “One of Them Days.” Director Lawrence Lamont gets the most out of what he has to work with, ending up with a film that, just like his leading ladies, radiates warmth and positive energy. Like the characters at its center, it may get a little messy, but its heart is in the right place, and even if it’s not great, it’s pretty enjoyable all the same.