Keke Palmer and SZA Prove to be a Great Comedy Team in Buddy Comedy
DIRECTED BY LAWRENCE LAMONT/2025
For a buddy comedy that’s almost entirely by the book, One of Them Days certainly blings up well in adorning anarchic shenanigans. This is a high compliment for this modest and compulsively likeable women-led two-hander.
Keke Palmer and pop star SZA play Dreux and Alyssa, two hapless roommates terminally behind on their rent. When their landlord hits them with a final ultimatum to pay up (by the end of that day!) or be evicted, a flurry of desperate misadventures ensues. Exacerbating the situation is an all-important business interview later that day for the levelheaded and sensible Dreux, something that’s been on the schedule for a while. Will she be able to save her apartment without bungling the big interview?
Complicating crap is an unofficial third roommate, a boytoy boyfriend for the flighty Alyssa. Thanks to his physical well-endowment, his six-day stay has extended to a six-month stay with benefits. That, however, ends here. Dreux has finally had it. Unfortunately, while the girls are arguing, the oh-so-charming dude makes off with the rent money. What starts as a devoted two-woman manhunt quickly evolves into a crazed bad-day free-for-all in the colorful but rundown part of L.A.
One of Them Days lands as a positive viewing experience first and foremost thanks to the undeniably magnetic chemistry between Palmer and SZA. Here’s hoping that this is the first of many comedy pairings for these two. Far less effective, however, is director Lawrence Lamont’s crass infusion of big slapstick moments, the worst of which is when the movie essentially stops so that a visit to the blood bank (one of many attempts to raise funds upon not being able to track down their deadbeat former roommate) can devolve into a seriously squeamish biohazard event. No thanks.
But, back to the positive… The film’s screenplay by Syreeta Singleton as well as the palpable and detailed vibe of its world (check out the Scotch tape all over the Church’s chicken drive-thru speaker) elevate One of Them Days as a rarified crowd-pleaser that brings to life a particular kind of Black shared experience. This is a movie that feels inherently true to the culture it’s depicting. Obligatory wacky supporting characters (some lethal, some dopey; some memorable, some fleeting) met along the way are another check in this movie’s plus-column. Look for Vanessa Bell Calloway, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Maude Apatow, Katt Williams, Patrick Cage, and several others.
Imperfect and perhaps a bit overstuffed with side quests and detours, One of Them Days is nevertheless rarely unpleasing. Lamont nails the absurdity inherent in these characters diligently pushing against a tidal wave of ridiculous bad luck, all in the sole interest of holding onto a lousy apartment that’s actively crumbing every time someone closes a cabinet door too hard. The stakes do increase as the day unspools as all the familiar buddy movie tropes play out. But One of Them Days isn’t so interested in breaking form as it is in allowing us to bask in the world of the girls’ untethered race against the clock, and the ways it inevitably challenges and builds their own tried and true friendship.