On Saturday Night Live in 2022, audiences first saw the multihyphenate actress and entertainer Keke Palmer alongside the multiplatinum, Grammy-winning artist SZA. They are now box office kings after their movie One of Them Days defied expectations and became the nation’s top comedy, ranking second only to Disney’s most recent Lion King production, Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa, over the four-day MLK holiday weekend.
Syreeta Singleton’s Friday, One of Them Days, which has been compared to the classic buddy comedy from 1995, follows two roommates and best friends, Palmer’s stiff-necked Dreux and SZA’s free-spirited Alyssa, as they race against the clock to pay their rent or risk being evicted from their home with everything they own.
Palmer, who co-produced the movie with Issa Rae, told NBC News that she agreed to work on it because it reminded her of a narrative about two girls growing up in a neighborhood in Los Angeles who are trying to figure out how to pay their rent, complete with all the goofs and lessons they have learned. However, it brought up memories of the friendship-themed movies I grew up seeing, which typically featured two men.
Palmer claimed that she seized the opportunity to star in and produce a picture that honored past films in the genre, such as Let’s Do It Again, starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby, Bad Boys, starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, and many more, while focusing on women in a way that she loves.
Palmer, who last appeared on the big screen in Nope, was pushed to work behind the camera for a feature picture by writer and filmmaker Jordan Peele. She explained, “I think the challenge was staying in it, because it took a long time.”
Palmer started working on One of Them Days while co-hosting the third hour of Good Morning America in 2019 and 2020. The actor, podcaster, author, and Emmy-winning Password host had to maintain her focus on her part as Dreux throughout the interim. When assembling a project, she said she had to make sure the studio was satisfied while also making sure it was perfect for the tale she was telling. She said she had to avoid becoming bogged down in all the numerous hoops she had to go through. It was an excellent lesson in teamwork.
Despite its humor and the contributions of comedians Katt Williams, Janelle James, Lil Rel Howery, and Gabrielle Dennis, Lawrence Lamont’s directorial debut offers more than just amusement. Rather, One of Them Days used comedy to highlight far more significant problems.
Right now, everyone is broke. Rae, best known for her HBO comedy Insecure, stated that the economy is having difficulties. It reflects our hustle culture, the difficulty of earning a living, and the ability to find humor in suffering.
Palmer claims that Friday, one of their primary influences, lacks a social commentary element that viewers frequently overlook. We are similar to “Oh, Friday is hilarious, but it was really about gun violence,” she said. The message was to stop shooting and killing each other; if you want to fight, go out on the street and put your guns down. It has to do with genuine messages.
It was the same with this film, she continued. Okay, so we made friends during hijinks and people are crazy, but it’s like, Hold on a second, there’s a poverty cycle here and it’s really hard to get out of it. Credit is a motherf—-er, and I don’t know how I’m going to pay back these student loans. Oh, and gentrification is pushing me out of my city. How do I stay afloat when I’m stuck in this cycle?
Palmer added that One of Them Days also has roots in Black cinema history outside of Friday. According to her, the song can make viewers think of movies from the Blaxploitation era, which flirt with comedy while simultaneously addressing social themes.
She claimed that One of Them Days inspires pride, understanding, and hope while tackling today’s pressing problems of predatory loans, gentrification, and systematic racism.