Movie Review: One of Them Days
We’ve all had a bad day. A day where nothing seems to go right and as the day goes on, things just get worse and worse. One of the Them Days, the directorial debut of Lawrence Lamont, is a sweet and funny movie about just that.
Dreux (Keke Palmer) is a promising employee at a local diner in Los Angeles. She’s Employee of the Month, she knows how to fix everything in the place, and all of the customers love her. She has an interview with corporate to become a franchise manager and is looking to rest and be as prepared as possible to move up in her career.
However, her day gets off to a bad start when she finds out her best friend and roommate Alyssa’s (music artist SZA) boyfriend stole their rent money, which is due today. This sends Dreux and Alyssa on an adventure through the Black neighborhoods of Los Angeles to get $1,500 or else they will be evicted.
On their journey, they discover Alyssa’s boyfriend is sleeping with another woman and has used the rent money to start an ill-advised clothing line. Desperate not to get evicted, the two try anything and everything to get the money, which includes giving too much blood at a blood bank and climbing a telephone pole to get a pair of Jordan’s to sell. They are also being hunted down by SZA’s boyfriend’s other woman and a terrifying local drug dealer. All this and Dreux still has to make her interview by 4:00 PM.
The journey of Dreux and Alyssa is entertaining and compelling. Because of the chemistry between Palmer and SZA, you are fully invested in their goals. The two feel like they have been friends for years and you want both of them to succeed in their goals and get the rent. Palmer is simply outstanding, oozing charisma, comedy, and heart in a performance that seems so effortless yet one that requires her character to constantly be thinking on her feet and adjusting to situations on the fly. SZA, making her acting debut, is impressive and mostly keeps up with Palmer. The two have great comedic timing and show-off scenes of surprising physicality.
Towards the end of a bad day, when the day is over and it feels like nothing else could go wrong, there is always something that reminds us that everything will be better and there is a reason to go on to the next day, and One of Them Days recognizes that. Through all the shenanigans and hijinks Dreux and Alyssa go through, it’s their friendship, their community, and their culture that motivates them to keep trying. Despite living in a sketchy area, the people in their lives and the community they are a part of make them want to stay. While we have seen some of the plot beats of One of Them Days in other movies, it’s this element that elevates the film to being as joyous as it is. One of Them Days is one of those movies that when I am having one of them days myself, I can put it on and it will immediately make my day better.
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