One of Them Days is a new film starring Keke Palmer and SZA, where they play best friends (Dreux and Alyssa) who need to race against the clock to find money to pay their rent before they get evicted in a few hours. However, what could have been a hilarious throwback buddy comedy is instead a below-average experience.
This is an old-fashioned type of film we don’t get anymore — a movie about two people who have to get money real quick over the course of one day. As a result, this film bears some similarity to 1995’s Friday with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker but One of Them Days does not work nearly as well. The best aspect of this film is Palmer and SZA, as they have very believable chemistry as two best friends, and you never doubt their performances for a second. This film also marks SZA’s acting debut, and she’s a natural. There isn’t too much drama for her character, but she handles the comedy well.
Palmer has been acting in movies and TV for years, and she’s a very charismatic person in real life. She uses some of that here, playing a waitress who wants to advance her career. When Alyssa’s boyfriend takes their rent money, this sends them on an adventure to get as much money as possible. This is the type of film that works based on the comic set pieces and how funny they are. Unfortunately, not all of it works. There are ideas that almost work, such as the idea of Maude Apatow playing the whitest white girl moving into a primarily black apartment complex. This could have been played for laughs a lot more, but it doesn’t reach its full potential.
An early scene sees them trying to get a loan. Katt Williams plays a man standing outside the place, warning them not to do it. The loan meeting goes terribly as the officer, played by Keyla Monterroso Mejia, openly laughs at Dreux’s credit score. This scene has a lot of ideas that are almost funny, but it never fully lands because everyone seems to be aware that they’re in a comedy movie. Everyone is performing at the register that they think will pull the greatest laugh from an audience, and none of it feels genuine.
Acting in a comedy movie can be more challenging than acting in a drama because knowing the right amount of gusto to bring to a moment that allows it to be funny without killing the immersion is really hard. Some of this comes in the direction from Lawrence Lamont. But the screenplay from Syreeta Singleton’s screenplay has a shortage of intelligent humor. Dumb humor can be funny, but One of Them Days tries to get mileage out of a blood bank scene where blood splatters everywhere. It’s more shocking than outrageously funny.
There’s occasional slapstick, and Palmer definitely brings in some physical comedy, but there aren’t many comedic ideas that are fresh or new. We have the broad humor of Alyssa getting electrocuted off a telephone pole and falling onto Dreux. These aren’t pathetic attempts at humor and there’s always a good intention and slight likability to all of it. SZA plays a character who makes a lot of bad decisions, but you don’t hate her for it.
As for the story and conflicts, it’s inconsistent at times. You care about the stakes early on, and the movie then feels the need to raise the stakes towards the final act, elevating the eviction stakes to life-or-death stakes. This idea comes out of nowhere. It feels out of place but it is ultimately necessary to make a more thrilling finale. There isn’t enough of an emotional pull in this story, and the path that Dreux and Alyssa’s relationship takes is just as predictable as you would expect. Overall, not much of One of Them Days is as funny as I hoped. My theater laughed a good amount during the movie, but I still wanted more out of this film.
While Palmer and SZA both turn in likable, believable performances as two best friends in a crazy situation, this film did not give me enough laughs to warrant a rewatch. It didn’t make me miserable the way other unfunny comedy movies like Y2K did, but it felt like a failed attempt to recreate the classic ’90s comedy vibe. But again, your enjoyment of One of Them Days will depend on your sense of humor. You might find this movie hilarious, but I wish this film did a better job of knowing when to push the humor to the next level and when to pull back.
SCORE: 4/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives outweigh the positive aspects, making it a struggle to get through.
