If you puzzle out all the events that transpire in the cheerfully raucous yet warm-hearted comedy “One of Them Days,” it’s going to score about a C+ on the Plausibility Test. Then again, you could say the same for a myriad of “one crazy day/night” movies, from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to “Adventures in Babysitting” to “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” to “Superbad” to “Booksmart,” and this applies to thrillers as well. I mean, a LOT goes down in “Die Hard,” right? After all, these films aren’t about One Typical Day or Night, they’re about One CRAZY Day or Night.
So, if we’re in the mood for an R-rated, sometimes cartoonishly violent, occasionally salacious comedy where you know some jokes will score and others will land with a thud and we’ll just move on to the next scene, here’s your ticket.
With the enormously charming and talented duo of Keke Palmer and SZA instantly clicking as BFFs and creating characters who are flat-out funny and thoroughly likable, “One of Them Days” has a framework that practically dares you NOT to call it a next-generation, female-centric “Friday,” and there’s no sense in fighting that comparison. (Keke Palmer’s Dreux even sports a blue plaid shirt that’s nearly identical to the one worn by Ice Cube in “Friday.”)
“One of Them Days” is set primarily in the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood that is officially called Baldwin Village but has been known for decades as The Jungles because of the tropical trees and foliage. (When we see the obligatory, ”God’s eye” aerial shots of greater Los Angeles, we can’t help but be reminded of how that landscape has been tragically marred in recent days.)
Palmer’s Dreux is a popular server at a Norms Restaurant who works the nightshift and has an upcoming interview with corporate for a management position that could put her on a career track and finally put an end to her paycheck-to-paycheck life. Dreux lives in an apartment in The Jungles with her best friend Alyssa (multiple Grammy Award-winning artist SZA), a struggling artist — and for the last six months, Alyssa’s no-good boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) has been shacking up there as well, living rent-free in Dreux’s head and literally rent-free as well.
Dreux is settling in for a few precious hours of sleep before her big interview when the landlord Uche (Rizi Timane) comes pounding on the door, demanding unpaid rent. Turns out the duplicitous Keshawn has spent the rent money on a half-baked T-shirt scheme, and now Dreux and Alyssa have until 6 p.m. to come up with the $1,500 or they’ll be evicted. Cue the countdown clock graphics, and the wild and wacky and perilous adventures.
With director Lawrence Lamont making good use of the neighborhood locations while demonstrating a solid sense of the rhythms of comedy pacing, and screenwriter Syreeta Singleton providing a steady stream of visual gags and one-liners while peppering in some sentiment here and there, “One of Them Days” sails along, even as Dreux and Alyssa stumble along.
This is the kind of film that’s made for one- or two-scene showcase cameos, giving several familiar faces the chance to shine. Vanessa Bell Calloway is Mama Ruth, a maternal figure in the apartment complex who lives up to that name; Janelle James from “Abbott Elementary” is a lab tech at a blood bank who is truly terrible at her job; Lil Rel Howery is a sneakerhead who might be able to help Dreux and Alyssa; Maude Apatow is Bethany, the first white person to move into The Jungles, and Katt Williams pockets every scene that he’s in as Lucky, an unhoused man who has made it his mission to warn residents away from the predatory Payday Loan business in the neighborhood. (When Dreux sees the obscenely exorbitant interest rates charged by the lender, she says she thought that was the year the place was founded.)
Even though the physical shtick comedy sometimes plays like something out of a cartoon, Palmer and SZA make the friendship between Dreux and Alyssa the glue that holds the story together. We know where this story is going even before Dreux and Alyssa know where it’s going; there’s one particularly big “reveal” that should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody. That’s OK. We’re just hear for the escapist laughs, and on that front “One of Them Days” is One of Those Comedies that delivers.