MPA Rating: [R]
The film, One of Them Days written by Syreeta Singleton, produced by Issa Rae (Insecure) and under the direction of Lawrence Lamont was released on January 17, 2025. It stars Keke Palmer as Dreux Jones and SZA as Alyssa in her feature film debut. They play two friends that are facing eviction of their shared apartment and have to race against the clock to keep a roof over their heads and their friendship intact.
Thanks to UT Martin’s Flight Crew, I had the privilege of seeing the buddy comedy for free! I curated an in-depth review that contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it, I suggest doing so before reading!
“Just one of them days that a girl goes through,” singer and songwriter, Monica sang in her 1995 smash hit, Don’t Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days). However, in this case, Dreux and Alyssa are taking it personal because Alyssa’s ‘boyfriend’, Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) took off with their rent money! It is the first of the month and their landlord demands their payment by 6 p.m. and if they don’t have it, they’ll be evicted. The girls track down Keshawn at the home of Berniece (Aziza Scott) who he has been cheating on Alyssa with. Berniece is the neighborhood’s bougie bully with a bad temper. Scott played this role tremendously well and reminded me of the character, Deebo from the cult classic film, Friday by Ice Cube.
Keshawn reveals that he stole the girls’ money and used it to invest in his T-shirt company. Now, I fault Alyssa for staying with a man that is obviously a leach, (he littered their apartment with his shoes and clothes while never pitching in on rent). However, Alyssa seems like the type of person to see the potential in others which is why she heavily instilled positive affirmations onto Dreux throughout the movie. Dreux second guessed herself a lot while Alyssa was creative free-spirited out of the two.
These roles were played to perfection by Palmer and SZA as it matched their offscreen personalities.
Berniece also gets knocked down by a truck door as she chased the girls out of her apartment. This was another added problem for them to deal with as the film progresses.
A scene that had the theater roaring in laughter was when Dreux and Alyssa went to a sketchy loan bank and an homeless street prophet named Lucky (Katt Williams), warned them to not do business there. However the teller told them their credit scores were so low that she laughed in their face which made the girls leave in defeat. I would like to add that Williams’ comedic timing needs to be studied because I am pretty sure all his lines were ad-libbed (he’s just that legendary!).
The girls went through the most crazy adventures in one day; Dreux donated blood at the blood donation center and the stripper turned nurse played by the hilarious Janelle James (Abbott Elementary) loses all her blood. Alyssa gets electrocuted after finding expensive rare Jordans hanging off a utility pole.
Alyssa came up with the ‘brilliant’ idea to sell the shoes off of E-Bay in order to pay their rent on time, little did they know that the Jordans were owned by a ruthless gang leader, King Lolo (Amin Joseph).
After, Dreux goes to a job interview and it goes surprisingly well until Berniece shows outside, sowing for revenge from earlier. Alyssa and Dreux get beaten up by her and she steals their money which results in them nearly losing their friendship. King Lolo calls them about the missing Jordans and tells them they have until 5 p.m. to give the shoes back or he will kill them.
They eventually return back to the apartment where their landlord has went through on evicting them and puts all their belongings on the curb outside. Even though he gave them a notice at the start of the movie, doesn’t make his decision justifiable. It wasn’t even 6 p.m. yet!
However, they run into their perky neighbor, Bethany (Maude Apatow) who offers to buy one of Alyssa’s paintings. Upon seeing Bethany’s large following on social media, the girls decided to promote and throw an impromptu art gallery that evening to raise money that they owe to King Lolo. This turn out successful and Dreux’s interviewer was one of the attendees; told her to expect a call offer for the job! Things were starting to look up for the girls until King Lolo arrives and Alyssa told Dreux to stall him because who was giving up their hard-earned money?
King Lolo didn’t take their plan too kindly and shots are fired. The girls flee to their abandoned apartment where Keshawn is there with candles to win back Alyssa. King Lolo finds the trio but a piece of the ceiling knocks him and the candles out, lighting the apartment on fire. Firefighters arrive to rescue them and one of the firefighters ended up being Dreux’s crush, Maniac (Patrick Cage) who she thought was a killer at first but turns out, he saves lives!
In the end, King Lolo gets arrested for not paying back delinquent loans (thanks to Alyssa for tipping off the loan bank). The girls’ friendship is stronger than ever and Keshawn is definitely out of the picture.
They now live in their newly refurbished apartment!
I wasn’t expecting the movie to be as thrilling and adventurous as it was because of how it was being promoted on social media. In my opinion, the promotion depicted the movie as corny but I was proven wrong by the stellar acting from the leading stars and supporting actors. Each of them delivered an amazing performance making the film truly a must see!
Grade: 9.5/10
