April 3rd, 2025

The format of the theatrically released comedy seemed to be doomed to live its life in the purgatorial doldrums of direct to streaming, where things like ‘Ricky Stanicky‘ and ‘Hubie Halloween‘ have just as much impact on the cultural zeitgeist as a Division III Basketball game. I had grown resigned that this was the world we were stuck in, that never again would we get something like ‘Friday‘, ‘Step Brothers‘, or ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective‘. The audienes simply were not showing up, there were a few mild successes over the years but all of them were Horror Comedies or Action Comedies, very rarely relying an actual jokes to carry the film through, instead focused on gore or guns or explosions with a few humorous movements dependent on larger budgets. The only mild success of the last few years was Bottoms, a coming of age story written by Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott. But now we once again have a female duo teaming up to get us back on track to the glory days of dependable comedic hits!

‘One of Them Days‘ starring Joey Award Nominee Keke Palmer and singer-songwriter SZA is a classic comedy in the sense that we need the most. The film is about the two respectively playing roommates Dreux and Alyssa who are barely making ends meet in their gentrifying LA neighborhood. Forming an odd couple duo, the Type A Dreux is trying to earn a promotion whereas the much more aloof Alyssa lose their rent money and have to go on a journey to find it and get it to their landlord in time to avoid eviction.

Reminiscient of other Black created comedies like ‘Friday‘ and ‘Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood‘, ‘One of Them Days‘ is about the changing aspects of LA, as well as most major American cities, and the forces that are leeching off minority populations. At one point the two find themselves at a payday lender that promises that “We Got Ya” and if you don’t pay back “We’ll Get Ya”. This sequence has two of the best scene stealing performances in the picture, first Katt Williams as a sort of payday loan prophet, trying to convince the girls to find another way to find the rent money. Then the loan officer played by Kayla Monterroso Meija telling Keke Palmer that her credit score is hilariously low, so low in fact that even the predatory payday loan sharks wont give her the rent money is one of the best sequences in the film.

Keke Palmer is also a powerhouse in the movie, she has such a charisma I’m shocked that she’s not already at Will Smith levels of fame at this point. Her energy throughout the movie propels the story, and her chemistry with SZA is largely dependent on her own banter. SZA is also doing solid work, with her aloof artistic nature often becoming the heel of the friendship. It’s a duo that the likes of Candy and Martin or Ice Cube and Tucker would be envious of.

At this point ‘One of Them Days‘ has been out since January 17th, and is now available for streaming on Netflix. But the most interesting part of this movie’s success was that it had a long, successful, theatrical run. I saw it in my local theater last week nearing three months after its initial release. Not only has it slowly but surely racked up 50 million dollars domestically against a 14 million dollar budget, but it’s gotten positive reviews and solid word of mouth. Outside of what I hope is a triumphant return to studio comedies, I hope ‘One of Them Days‘ continues the conversation of leaving things in theaters longer, and not shoving them into algorithmic streaming platforms where they will die on the vine. Comedies, and theaters are good! Let’s get back to both of them.

3.5/5