A Review of "One of Them Days" a.k.a. Friday With Keke and SZA
Oh! It's like the Monica song! You guys remember the Monica song? MONICAAA!!!
Gotta get the rent money NOW!
I decided to hit the movie theater yesterday and do my 2nd review of 2025 with One of Them Days starring Keke Palmer and SZA (Solána Imani Rowe) in her film debut. This sounds silly because she was very good in this movie and must have acted before. This film is directed by Lawrence Lamont and produced by a variety of people including Issa Rae who could produce me anytime like Zendaya with Challengers. That's just my charming way of saying how cool of a movie I felt One of Them Days was.
One of Them Days is this fun buddy comedy that owes a lot of its hilarity to movies that came before. We'll get to those films later, but these two roommates need to make 1500 dollars by the end of the day to avoid an eviction. They run around Los Angeles trying to make ends meet, encountering a gangster, a bully, and a Churches chicken biscuit thief along the way.
Should I see One of Them Days?
Absolutely!
If you're a Black person in America right now, you could use a few laughs. Hell, you could probably use some laughs whomever you are. I suggest you go on Friday before the January 2025 ice storm rolls in this weekend. Make a night of it. Find a theater playing One of Them Days, get some cash, grab your friends or kids, and just go. I went into this film cold, and it was worth it.
Go.
Fly free!
There is at least one outfit change in this film for reasons that are kinda gross.
The easiest way to understand this movie is: If you like Friday, you will like One of Them Days. This film took liberally from The Friday Playbook. They made plenty of changes, but the inclination is clear in this film. There is also some Cheech and Chong in there as well which SZA mentions in a hilarious pre-release video she, Keke, and Issa did to drum up interest for this film.
All I'm saying is the work was done, and we need to value it with our eyeballs and add to their ticket sales.
How is this like Friday?
Once upon a time in a low-income area of L.A. was a boy named Craig (Ice Cube) who ate all his Daddy's (John Witherspoon) pork chops, and didn't get along with his Sister (Regina King). Having lost his box-moving job that week, on Friday he decides to hang out with his buddy Smokey (Chris Tucker) who owes the gangster, Big Worm (Faizon Love) money while Craig ends up in a tussle with the neighborhood bully, Deebo (Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr) because he smacked Debbie (Nia Long) around after beating up her sister Felicia (Angela Means) over some B.S. Smokey did. Yes, this is where “Bye Felicia” comes from. Friday was directed by F. Gary Gray and has gone on to become such a cult classic that it spawned two sequels and a cartoon nobody could watch.
Friday came out in 1995 and became an important film in Black cinema. From Blaxploitation films like Shaft and Black Belt Jones (pardon the 1974 f-bomb) to 80s films like Do the Right Thing and Hollywood Shuffle, up to Boyz in the Hood and Poetic Justice. Friday is a franchise that meant a lot to people throughout its run. There have even been rumors of one last hurrah…
Okay! I'll give this a shot!
One of Them Days is not Friday, it knows it's comedic assignment and uses the playbook from Friday. It makes a different kind of funny as most of the talent in this movie is female. Unlike hoodmates Craig and Smokey, Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are roommates. Roommates who require a lot of money in eight hours due to the shenanigans of Keyshawn (Joshua Neal) who used the rent money Alyssa gave him to start his hair-brained T-shirt scheme. Unfortunately for the women, they also end up owing the crazed gangster even more money. You have to ask… if you parents aren’t rich how do you raise over 6000 dollars in 8 hours?
The Friday Playbook is all about people with no means owing people of more means more money than they currently have. The amount doesn't matter as much as the characters’ inability to get it in time. What they go through to pay these forces off is where the comedy comes from. One of Them Days is funny and fresh. This film is worth your time and I think the cast and crew would appreciate you going to see their hard work.
They made this film for people like us.
