One of Them Days - Review

In a week when Bong Joon-ho’s latest film, Mickey 17, a critique of worker’s welfare in a capitalist system, there is an odd but complementary double bill with One of Them Days, a film that lightly comments on the dynamic between landlord and tenant. The film opens with Dreux (Keke Palmer), a hard-working waitress working at Norm’s diner, she’s Employee of the Month and hoping to rise up the employment ladder, with an interview for a franchise manager position later on in the day. Her roommate is Alyssa (SZA), her best friend but also her polar opposite, an aspiring artist who has yet to make a sale.

Whilst being best friends Dreux is frustrated by Alyssa, and particularly her douchebag boyfriend, Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) who leaves his collection of expensive trainers displayed around the living room. Keshawn is only kept round by having Alyssa under his thumb because of his sizable appendage.

Their apartment is a mess, with no air conditioning and a crumbling ceiling, but things get worse when Dreux gets an explosive and persistent knock on the door from landlord Uche (Rizi Timane), who demands they pay their overdue rent by 9pm, or she will end up like her neighbour, whose possessions have been dumped on the roadside. Dreux thinks this has already been paid, however, she discovers Alyssa lent the rent money to Keshawn, who spent it starting up a side business of counterfeit t-shirts and has done a runner before he can be interrogated. It is going to be one of them days.

What unfolds is a day of things slowly getting worse and worse, but definitely in a more comedic and less hard-hitting tone. There are some good comedic bits, as the pair try and think of any which way to get a quick buck. Whether that be heading to a payday loan company where the interest is confused with the year of establishment, or trying to donate four times the recommended amount of blood. It is a film full of delirious and poorly thought-through decisions, such as parking on the American equivalent of a double yellow. Each time digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole.

However, One of Them Days is a film that falls into the genre cliches a little too much, such as the slow-mo walking to rap music, which feels like it has been done to death. A lot of the comedy didn’t work for me either, but some abrupt over-the-top laughs kept me entertained.

But the highlight of the film is the chemistry between Dreux and Alyssa. Whilst it starts off a little bumpy settling into its premise, once the film gets going it moves along quite nicely, all be it following this kind of comedy film beat for beat. It is taking this template and executing it well, with a particularly compelling and heartfelt narrative that brings everything together, even moments that you had forgotten about, meaning whilst I found the journey bumpy, the destination made up for it.