“One of Them Days,” a buddy comedy about two Los Angeles roommates who have nine hours to pay rent, is a treat to devour like pancakes at midnight. Fittingly, one of the heroines, Dreux (Keke Palmer), works red-eyed at the Norms restaurant in La Cienega. This modest 24-hour restaurant is classified as an ancient and cultural monument. It’s also the kind of casual, audience-pleasing film that has something special about it: an R-rated dating movie like “Friday” or “Smiley Face” that once would have been taken for granted but now exists and deserves a round of applause.
Dreux and Alyssa (the Grammy-winning musician SZA) are pals who share a courtyard apartment in Baldwin Hills. One morning, their tightfisted landlord, Uche (Rizi Timane), insists that he never received that month’s $1,500. Keshawn (Joshua David Neal), Alyssa’s eye-poppingly endowed boyfriend, had the money; now, both he and it are gone. The f-boy has effed over the girls — they’ll be out on the curb by dusk unless they come up with some fast cash.
Director Lawrence Lamont and writer Syreeta Singleton hail from TV. (Singleton recently show-ran the series “Rap S—.”) But their debut feature swaggers with confidence through a brash and playful version of L.A. Genres are mashed together at will: western, action, romance, Grand Guignol. As the girls track Keshawn to the bedroom of his latest hookup, a clump of hair blows ominously across their path. “Tumbleweave,” Dreux mutters. A beat later, the other woman, Berniece (Aziza Scott), chases the pair down the street, her palms furiously slicing the air like the T-1000.
Everyday problems are hopped up on adrenaline. Alyssa imagines Berniece seducing worthless Keshawn in a twerking fantasia; ordering fast food at a drive-in, meanwhile, turns out to be a competitive sport. When the ladies try to secure a loan from a predatory payday chain (slogan: “We gotcha, we’ll getcha!”), the clerk (a hilarious Keyla Monterroso Mejia of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) gestures toward an advertised interest rate of 1900.5%. Gasps Dreux, “I thought that was the year of establishment!”
Nothing is simple on the first day of the month for other people who live paycheck to paycheck. As Deaux and Alyssa run around looking for enough money to stay at their house, we see other Angelenos nervously looking out the window, hoping they won’t. Be next. The building’s courtyard has its own economy (an ecosystem, in fact) where citizens are united through the effort to pass. Mama Ruth (Vanessa Bell Calloway) sells snacks in her living room; Jameel (Dewayne Perkins) combs his hair near the stairs. Meanwhile, the air conditioning doesn’t work and the roof is about to collapse. Uche is eager to evict, renovate and gentrify. When the first white resident of the compound arrives, Bethany (Maude Apatow), Deaux shudders with a “Ruh-roh” from Scoothrough-Doo.
This fluffy, silly movie works because you need to be there wherever the protagonists fall flat on their faces: a blood bank, a fight, an ambulance. SZA and Palmer make a very fun duo. They are not an absolute pair, they are more like balls of adjacent screws. SZA’s Alyssa is a dazed driving bohemian with flowers painted on her car and stuffed animals on her shoes. Like the filmmakers, this is also their first feature film and they adapted the role to the singer-songwriter’s comic rhythm.
Her wackadoo charisma is at ease in front of a camera. Back in her stoner days, SZA willingly played herself like a human cartoon. When she guest-starred on Lizzo’s dance competition show, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” she sprawled on a couch with such slacker aplomb that I wouldn’t have blinked if she’d pulled a slice of pizza out of her pocket. Here as Alyssa, she pulls off abrupt pivots, exiting one scene with the non sequitur “Is that a pigeon?”
Palmer’s Dreux is the ultimate pragmatist, a worn-out employee robot with frayed wires. She can be captivating and clumsy at the same time. Every time Dreux crosses paths with her community crush, Maniac (Patrick Cage), a hunk with a questionable reputation and an ax in his Mercedes, she completely breaks down. His ambitions have one foot in truth: he dreams of one day running a Norms franchise, so it’s no surprise that his big interview is scheduled for this very afternoon. The unexpected thing is that we manage to invest in our career, despite a plot that ranges from far-fetched to absurd.
Some endings of the story are outdated. In the opening scene, radio DJ Big Boy warns that today’s weather will be scorching; Meanwhile, we see pictures of other people wearing jackets and the heat never comes back. (For those watching the videos this weekend to escape the ashes in the sky, prepare for a damaging fire scene. ) Don’t expect the story to justify how Palmer gets to spend a third of the movie locked in lime. green mesh spandex as “a thick praying mantis”, or the series of unfortunate occasions that cause the two friends to flee for their lives from the local gangster, King Lolo, who executes his victims by throwing them off a parking lot. The character of King Lolo is introduced with such mysterious fanfare that you’ll assume the casting is some wild celebrity stunt. Instead, it’s just a really smart Amin Joseph who plays his scenes with clarity.
The soundtrack is solid (Saweetie, GloRilla and a track by Palmer over the closing credits), and the images have none of that dishwatery cheapness that’s crept into too many of the last remaining contemporary comedies. Occasionally, cinematographer Ava Berkofsky allows herself a flourish, like a split-screen gag that gets a good giggle, or a tiny send-up of the aesthetics of online selling. (Picture a pair of Air Jordans assembled like a da Vinci tablescape.)
Still, it’s all the main reason to go. Lil Rel Howery and Katt Williams are the best-known names in the supporting cast, but you are delighted with the small roles played by emerging talents such as Scott, Mejia, and Janelle James as a stripper-turned-nurse. Lamont is convinced that his film is based on his personality. He’s calibrated the functionality to be compatible as a 12-piece band and knows that some jokes are even funnier when whispered. But I need to talk: I miss this kind of junk food that satisfies me. Waiter, bring me another one.
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