Tag: Black

In the new movie One of Them Days, it’s the first of the month, when the bills are due and tensions are higher than usual. BFF roommates Dreux (played by everyone’s favorite multihyphenate Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (R&B singer SZA, in her feature-film debut) find themselves strapped for cash, with nary a penny to pay their monthly rent—which is due by 6 p.m., or they’ll face eviction. Thus begins the epic day-in-the-life journey of two broke Black girls who comb through their neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles looking for ways to get cash fast.

One of Them Days is the first mainstream Black-women-led buddy comedy since 2017’s smash hit Girls Trip, and, reportedly, the first to center just a duo since 1997’s B.A.P.S. Produced by Insecure’s Issa Rae, written by Rap Sh!t showrunner and frequent Rae collaborator Syreeta Singleton, and directed by Lawrence Lamont, the movie delivers plenty of laughs, socioeconomic messages, and Black female sisterhood (without the accompaniment of the severe trauma plot). The Black female buddy comedy is back and fresher than ever, a reminder of just how much this genre has to offer.

Like many great comedies, such as Superbad or Friday, One of Them Days takes place over the course of one day. (The movie’s only fault is neglecting to include the best song ever made about this specific day.) When Alyssa’s crafty noncommittal boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua Neal) steals the girls’ rent money to finance the start of his T-shirt line (shirts that say “Cucci,” a play on the luxury brand Gucci), Dreux and Alyssa venture into the neighborhood of Baldwin Village, colloquially known as “the Jungle,” for opportunities to earn some quick money. However, not only are they pressed for time by their landlord, who is noted for skirting legal rental practices, but Dreux also has to make it to a hopefully life-changing interview for a big promotion—and, to top it all off, the girls are being hunted by a neighborhood bully.

Slapsticky hijinks, dick jokes, and comedic linchpins found in any movie about the hood—public brawls, neighborhood tough guys, someone coming in and stealing something the protagonists worked hard to get—ensue. However, while the movie’s comedy tends toward the profane, the issues that set up the punch lines in One of Them Days are very real. The duo gets rejected from a loan bank because of their abysmal credit; Dreux, in a bid for a quick buck, gives too much blood, which hilariously ends up all over the donation center; Alyssa steals a pair of Air Jordans hanging on a phone line, which lands them in hot water with the neighborhood’s crime boss. When comedy legend Katt Williams shows up as Lucky, a loitering antiestablishment street preacher who warns the girls not to take a loan from the loan bank for fear of them getting trapped in a predatory cycle of debt, he becomes one of the best running gags in the movie, while also making a salient point about the very real predatory businesses that target residents of impoverished areas. The film takes a similar approach to the Village’s first white resident, Bethany (Maude Apatow), moving into a renovated apartment much nicer than the protagonists’ dilapidated unit—a funny, yet trenchant, portrayal of gentrification and landlords’ exploitative practices pushing out long-standing tenants in favor of wealthier, often white, fresh blood.

But One of Them Days is more about how people survive than just the widespread injustices they live with. The laughs might be based on how societal structures keep Black people down, but the movie itself is about how Black women build community and lift each other up. Elle’s Keyaira Kelly aptly calls One of Them Days a “love letter to regular, degular Black girls”—and this is accomplished on many fronts, from the way the costuming, hair, and makeup choices simultaneously enhance the film’s comedy and the effortless beauty of its stars, to the way the girls’ faith in each other overrides and outlives any frustrations they have with each other. Most buddy comedies show a temporary falling-out between the lead characters as the central conflict comes to a head. One of Them Days is no different in that regard, but the thing this movie understands about being a Black woman is that there is an unshakable faith in what you know your fellow Black women to be capable of. Black women are the first ones to recognize each other’s worth; fittingly, although Dreux and Alyssa’s frustrations with each other mount as the day goes on, they never discount one another.

It makes sense that this long-overdue addition to the scant canon of Black female buddy comedies comes to us by way of Issa Rae, who is widely credited with leading the charge in bringing stories about Black womanhood to the screen, big and small. Rae’s production company and her extensive network might also be to thank for some great cameos from Black comedy greats like Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James, Get Out’s Lil Rel Howery, comedian and TV writer Dewayne Perkins, A Black Lady Sketch Show’s Gabrielle Dennis, and more. There’s nothing wrong with a well-crafted Black drama—last year’s standout films Nickel Boys and Hard Truths are evidence enough of this. But One of Them Days is a welcome reminder that there’s room for many kinds of movies in Black cinema—and some of them can even show four-time Grammy Award–winning musician SZA getting electrocuted by climbing up a telephone pole.