One of Them Days (dir. Lawrence Lamont)

by Jack Martin | Mar 5, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 97 mins

UK Distributor: Sony Pictures

UK Release Date: 7 March 2025

WHO’S IN ONE OF THEM DAYS?

Keke Palmer, SZA, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Maude Apatow, Katt Williams, Joshua Neal, Aziza Scott, Patrick Cage, Dewayne Perkins, Amin Joseph, Gabrielle Dennis, DomiNque Perry, Lil Rel Howery, Janelle James, Rizi Timane

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Lawrence Lamont (director), Syreeta Singleton (writer), Deniese Davis, Poppy Hanks, James Lopez, Isa Rae and Sara Rastogi (producers), Chanda Dancy (composer), Ava Berkofsy (cinematographer), Kim Boritz-Brehm and Tia Nolan (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Two friends (Palmer and SZA) must come up with their rent money in a single day…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ONE OF THEM DAYS?

It’s shocking, but honestly not that hard to believe, that One of Them Days is the first mainstream theatrical comedy to be led by Black women in nearly a decade. Despite the critical and financial success of 2017’s Girls Trip, few studios and filmmakers have been daring enough to continue targeting what has proven to be a lucrative and responsive audience. Sadly, it’s just one of numerous examples of what has become known as “misogynoir”, the unwanted combination of racism and sexism that seems to have prevented more opportunities for Black women on the big screen, especially in a genre often dominated by men (of any colour).

Proving this point is the fact that One of Them Days has already become another example of a Black female-led comedy doing far better than anyone could have predicted. As of writing, not only has director Lawrence Lamont’s film already made back at least three times its $14 million budget in the US alone, but it’s become one of the best-reviewed films of the year thus far, with both critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes currently hovering around 90%. It’s an undoubtable hit, almost as much as Girls Trip was, which is all the evidence one needs for there to dispel the myth that movies for and with Black women simply do not sell.

And if more such films are to finally be made in the wake of One of Them Days’ sleeper success, hopefully they’ll at least be as amusing and as fun to watch as the movie itself is.

Taking place over the course of a single day in Los Angeles, the film follows roommates and best friends Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA), who are barely getting by in life, with Dreux working long shifts as a waitress and preparing for a life-changing job interview, and aspiring artist Alyssa bumming around their disintegrating apartment with her loser boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua Neal). However, when their negligent landlord Uche (Rizi Timane) angrily demands their rent money – which, unbeknownst to them, Keshawn has spent on his knock-off T-shirt business – Dreux and Alyssa have until that evening to get the cash, or else they’ll be evicted. So begins a madcap day where the two friends try everything from securing loans to selling abandoned Air Jordans to even donating blood in order to keep their place, and end up incurring the wrath of vengeful mistresses and even local gang members in the process.

Much of the film’s strength comes from how well-cast the two leads are. Keke Palmer and SZA, the latter making her acting debut, have great chemistry together, making it feel completely believable that these two characters would be lifelong friends, despite their different approaches to life and occasionally some competing priorities. Their comedic timing is on point, helped by Lamont’s direction that leans into the playful screwball nature of Syreeta Singleton’s script, which gifts both actors with a wide range of scenarios where they can be naturally funny while also being genuinely endearing to be around. Palmer, the more experienced actor, perhaps has stronger emotional range than SZA does, but the singer-turned-actor makes a charismatic impression all the same, and is clearly having a blast in some of the film’s most outlandish set-pieces.

The filmmaking is also lively enough to match the energy of its leads, with Lamont bringing a fast pace to his scenes without overdoing the heightened nature of the storytelling, even when it gets into a slightly more contrived climax. Singleton also has fun with lending a humorous lens to real socio-economic issues such as gentrification – the arrival of Maude Apatow as a young white neighbour in the protagonists’ Black-dominant apartment block is treated like the slow-motion introduction of a hot love interest in a typical rom-com, only with disapproving scowls instead of ogling faces – and the privatisation of US healthcare, with the two leads at one point bolting from an ambulance upon realising that their medical bills will be higher than their rent. Mercifully, One of Them Days isn’t the kind of film to stop what it’s doing and step onto a soapbox to spell out the issues at hand, because the writer and director both know when to lightly address certain things before getting right back into the comedy that the audience has come to see, and in that respect the movie does this very well.

On the downside, the film perhaps isn’t as consistently funny as it may have been hyped to be, especially with so many other strong attributes under its belt. It could be down to the fact that this kind of humour doesn’t necessarily translate well to British audiences, or maybe even due to how I – a white male – personally might not understand the subtext of certain jokes that may play better to Black viewers, but One of Them Days isn’t quite a laugh riot, or at least not as much as it ought to be given all the buzz surrounding it.

But the film is enjoyable enough for a pleasant comedic interlude, one that is no doubt fuelled by the great pairing at its centre, and the lively nature in which their escapades are presented. More importantly, though, One of Them Days is further proof that movies featuring Black women really do have the capacity to be worthwhile theatrical entertainment, so hopefully it won’t take another eight years for the next one to come along and prove the naysayers wrong (again).

SO, TO SUM UP…

One of Them Days is an enjoyable buddy comedy that benefits from the great chemistry between charismatic leads Keke Palmer and SZA, as well as some lively screwball direction and playful writing, though it isn’t quite as consistently funny to justify some of its hype.