Released: 6th March
Seen: 16th June
The buddy comedy is a staple of cinema that has created absolute legends of the genre. Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Cheech & Chong, some truly iconic comedy pairings have been the backbone of this genre. It’s a genre that lives and dies on the chemistry of the two leads; a truly great comedic pairing can make any film work even if the script isn’t that good. Entire careers have been made just from how good a couple of actors bounce off each other. It’s a tricky thing to make work, but when the stars align, you can get something pretty special. In One Of Them Days, we get to introduce the new comedic coupling of Keke Palmer and Sza, a double act that I don’t think anyone really would’ve expected to happen, but now that it exists, it’s actually pretty amazing to behold.
In terms of buddy comedy plots, One Of Them Days follows a standard setup. Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are roommates sharing an apartment. Dreux works at a diner and is trying to secure a promotion to manage the location where she works. Alyssa is a little more flighty and expects the universe/God/the ancestors to make everything work in her favour. This Odd Couple encounters a slight issue when their landlord shows up on the first demanding his rent money, which Dreux and Alyssa thought had already been paid. Turns out that Alyssa’s boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) was supposed to pay the rent, but instead used the money to help fund his T-shirt business. Now, Dreux and Alyssa have until 6 pm to get their rent money, or else they’ll be evicted. This naturally leads to a day full of shenanigans and escapades that get more and more insane the closer they get to the deadline, you know how a buddy comedy works, so you probably can guess the tone of this thing from that point on.
In terms of plots, One of Them Days isn’t exactly breaking the mould and doing anything radically different. It’s an Odd Couple dynamic where the leads have a financial problem they have to solve in a limited timeframe; there are literally dozens of these stories in movies and TV that we have all seen. It’s a structure that works well, provided that you have some good comedic scenes to utilise it, and this film does that. The core beats of the film where the girls try to find new ways to come up with the money are hilarious but also feel pretty real, simple things like donating blood for the money or finding something on the streets and trying to flip it to make a profit feel like things that anyone might try and so when those things go haywire it creates some hilarious and relatable comedy. That’s one of the big magic tricks that One Of Them Days manages to pull off; even at its most over the top, it still feels relatable. There’s maybe one moment in the entire film where it’s just a straight-up cartoon, but it’s so brief and they earn it with such a well-thought-out setup that it works.
The other magic trick that One Of Them Days pulls off is the incredible chemistry between the leads. Keke and Sza are an absolutely fantastic pairing of performers who should just be put in as many films together as time will allow. Anyone who has been following Keke Palmer’s career shouldn’t be shocked by this. The woman is a powerhouse who can captivate any audience with her undeniable charm and talent. Her comedic timing is undeniable, and the way she can change the energy of an entire scene with just an expression should be studied. The surprise here, and maybe it shouldn’t have been, is Sza who makes her cinematic debut and proves that she’s just an undeniable talent in any medium she wants to be part of. Her charisma alone carries the film, any time she’s not on camera you actively miss her because she just has a great energy about her but she’s also willing to go to some insane places for the purposes of a joke. She’ll happily look like a fool if she gets the laugh, the biggest laugh of the whole damn film is just down to Sza going for it with a bag of blood. Put Sza in more movies, with Keke would be ideal but even just on her own because she is an absolute scene stealer.
Honestly, One Of Them Days is a film made up completely of scene stealers. Every time we get a new character, even just for a single scene, they threaten to run away with the entire picture. It’s a cast of people who just get the jokes and how to deliver them, while also managing to match the energy of the two leads. This is again pretty standard for this kind of film, you want a buddy comedy to have a lot of wild wacky side characters for the leads to play against and this film provides that in abundance with characters who are certainly a little wild and wacky, but never feel so insane that you stop believing they could be real. It’s certainly heightened at times, but never so much that you stop buying the reality of the scenario. Some of the side characters are so well defined you almost want a whole movie just following their day (I’ll take one film following Katt Williams as Lucky and a second one about Janelle James’s Ruby, thanks) but they all are big enough characters that you instantly get why they’re funny the second they turn up, even if they only have a quick 2-3 minutes scene to play around with.
Now, of course, this isn’t to suggest that One Of Them Days is perfect, there are a few moments that really didn’t work as well as I’m sure they intended. There’s an entire plot with a character called Berniece (Aziza Scott) that frankly felt like it was there to give a bullshit reason for the girls to lose their money early in the film and just wasn’t funny, the resolution also felt a little bit too simple and brushed aside with a few quick lines of dialogue that didn’t feel as satisfying as it should’ve but really that’s about it. Some of the jokes might not work for some audiences but fortunately it’s so brisk and full of jokes that eventually one of them will get you and the charm of the leads is going to carry you through those lulls in the laughter.
One of Them Days is a great entry in the buddy comedy genre that doesn’t reinvent the genre but shows that sometimes all you need to do is approach the classics with fresh eyes. It’s simple and easy-to-follow plot that allows for the hilarious comedic performances to shine, creating a pair of characters who the audience is game to follow for the full feature-length runtime. It’s quick, it’s effective and it knows exactly what it’s doing at all times, creating a film that’s pretty easy to enjoy any time. It’s already been announced that they’re working on a sequel with the same cast and crew and I’m all for it, more films with this pair of leads is everything that we need.
Movie Meister Reviews 