Sometimes just getting to hang out with characters is more than enough. Case in point: the new comedy from first-time filmmaker and music video veteran Lawrence Lamont, One of Them Days. The film tells the story of two best friends and roommates who spend the day attempting to get their rent money, racing against the clock to avoid eviction. As the day goes on, they have the added drama of not getting killed as well.
Keke Palmer plays Dreux, a waitress with ambition. In fact, while all of this is going on, she also has a job interview for a junior executive position in the company that owns the restaurant where she works, which she’s convinced she’s going to tank. Roommate Alyssa (musician SZA) discovers that her well-endowed but unmotivated boyfriend has taken their rent money and invested it in a losing venture, putting the two women in a bit of a bind with their zero-tolerance landlord.
One of Them Days is a perfect example of a great hang with two enjoyable characters, as well as everyone they come into contact with that day, allowing for many opportunities for hilarious cameos by gifted comedians and comic actors. Some of these supporting players live in their apartment complex, including hairdresser Jameel (the gifted Dewayne Perkins, The Blackening), who has set up a shop in the complex’s courtyard and always puts paying customers over friendships when it comes to hair needs.
The complex’s first white tenant, Bethany (Maude Apatow), is moving in that day, and ends up becoming a valuable asset to the ladies later in the film once they take the time to get to know her. Bethany’s desire to be liked by everyone is not only adorable but very funny among such cynical characters. Kat Williams pops up throughout the film as a homeless man with many a conspiracy theory; Lil Rel Howery comes in for one scene to buy vintage sneakers that the women rescue from electrical wires; and Janelle James (Abbott Elementary) shows up as a worker at a medical clinic where the girls try to earn money giving blood. Not every encounter is as funny as the last, but they all seem to work to some degree.
There’s a potential love story tossed in with a character named Maniac (Patrick Cage), whom Dreux thinks is some sort of violent criminal because of his nickname. Naturally, the stressful nature of the day and Alyssa’s knack for having trouble find her at every turn puts a strain on their friendship, and they fight as entertainingly as they collaborate. Written by Syreeta Singleton and produced by Issa Rae, One of Them Days reminded me a lot of a female-driven Friday, as something of a tour of urban Los Angeles. Sometimes the various plot points get in the way of just spending time with these characters, especially when the women find out that the sneakers they found belonged to a psycho gangster who threatens to murder them if they don’t cough up several grand for the shoes. That seems extreme in a film that works best when it feels believable and low stakes. That said, when Alyssa’s boyfriend’s side-chick seeks violent revenge on the girls for breaking into her place, that works extraordinarily well.
One of Them Days feels like spending time with friends or people you’d like to be your friend, and it culminates with a pop-up art show (turns out Alyssa is also a talented painter) that brings all of the storylines and characters together to wrap things up, and even though you just saw them a few minutes earlier, it feels like a welcome reunion of many of the movie’s cameos. It’s funny and engaging, but more than anything, it’s easy to slip into and just enjoy.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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