Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
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STEPHEN THOMPSON, HOST:
Keke Palmer is one of Hollywood's most charismatic leads, and SZA is one of the world's biggest pop stars. Together, they've teamed up for a raunchy buddy comedy called "One Of Them Days."
AISHA HARRIS, HOST:
The movie is about two best friends in LA who endure a wild series of misadventures as they try to make rent over the course of one very eventful day. It's rowdy and profane, but it's also got something to say about gentrification, predatory businesses, and other factors that make it hard to survive and advance in America. I'm Aisha Harris.
THOMPSON: And I'm Stephen Thompson. Today, we are talking about "One Of Them Days" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR.
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THOMPSON: Joining us today is the host of NPR's It's Been A Minute, Brittany Luse. Hey, Brittany.
BRITTANY LUSE, BYLINE: Hello.
THOMPSON: Also with us making his POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR debut, NPR producer Corey Antonio Rose. Welcome to the show, Corey Antonio.
COREY ANTONIO ROSE, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
THOMPSON: It is a joy to have you. I'm so glad you could be here. So "One Of Them Days" stars Keke Palmer as a highly driven waitress named Dreux. She's getting ready to interview for a promotion that would let her manage her own diner franchise. But it's the first of the month, and the rent is due, and it wasn't the wisest decision to delegate the rent drop-off to Dreux's roommate and best friend, Alyssa. She's a free-spirited visual artist played by SZA. Alyssa has made the even less wise decision to delegate the rent drop-off to her no-good boyfriend. And you start to see where this is going.
The rent money's gone, eviction is looming and matters only spiral from there. Soon enough, they're dealing with shady payday lenders, a neighborhood bully and a visit to the blood bank, where the first sign of trouble is the presence of Abbott Elementary's wonderful Janelle James. And a quick warning - this episode does contain profanity. "One Of Them Days" is in theaters now. Brittany, I'm going to start with you. What did you think of "One Of Them Days"?
LUSE: I had fun. I had fun. I feel like the film advertised itself as, like, a fun, silly movie, and it was a fun, silly movie. I was charmed by SZA. She had a very warm onscreen presence that I was really surprised by, pleasantly surprised by. I had never really known her to act (laughter), so I didn't know what to expect.
THOMPSON: This is her first film role.
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
LUSE: And she did pretty good. And, of course, Keke Palmer, you said that she's one of Hollywood's most charismatic leads, and that is just nothing but true. I thought that she was better than the film. But she's also very frequently better than the film, so I don't know if that's really saying a lot.
HARRIS: Very true.
LUSE: And that's not necessarily an insult to the films that she's in. That's just Keke being Keke. I will say it had been - I think the first time I had seen her, like, in an adult role in a straight-up comedy like this, and I was - like, I wanted more.
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: I left the film feeling like, OK, I could watch Keke do this, like a - like, six times a year. But yeah, I thought that it was a little slapsticky at times. That's not really my jam, a hundred percent. But I still felt like it was a lot of fun. They had good chemistry between SZA and Keke Palmer, and also a lot of really, great, very solid, comedic little roles that were filled by really, really, really, great, really funny actors. Like, I would see someone like Katt Williams pop up, or...
THOMPSON: Lil Rel Howery, or...
HARRIS: Yeah.
LUSE: Oh, my gosh.
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: Lil Rel pop up. Now, I will say sometimes I felt like the movie was getting a little, like, it was spitting out a little too much. I felt like, at a certain point that Alyssa and Dreux should not have been friends anymore.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: We're going to get to that 'cause I have some questions about that.
LUSE: That was one where I was like, you actually - I think y'all should have in this movie separated. But this was a lot of fun.
THOMPSON: All right, how about you, Corey Antonio?
ROSE: Oh, my gosh. I really enjoyed the film. I did not know if I would like it.
LUSE: (Laughter).
ROSE: It's been a minute since a comedy has made me laugh in, like, in the theaters.
THOMPSON: There aren't that many comedies in theaters.
ROSE: Right.
HARRIS: Yeah, this is true. Yeah.
ROSE: I mean, it has all the parts of a good night out at the theater. Oh, look, we going to get into Mr. Patrick Cage (laughter).
LUSE: He was so handsome.
(LAUGHTER)
ROSE: It's been a minute since I've had a leading man really enthrall me like that on screen. The chemistry between SZA and Keke was tangible, believable, which was a refreshing surprise to me. I didn't know if SZA was going to make me lose her. SZA the personality, SZA the musician in her performance. And yeah, it was a really refreshing take, and I loved that it was tackling something that felt real or that is - like, people are still struggling to pay rent. It was a story that was giving us that at an age that felt accurate to what's really going on as opposed to this idea that you just leave the house at 21 and everything's great.
HARRIS: Very millennial movie, it felt like.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: What did you think, Aisha?
HARRIS: I echo a lot of what both Brittany and Corey have said. The thing I came away with from this movie is that making intentional comedy is really, really hard. One of my favorite scenes involves a moment where they - these two characters, they try to go to, like, this payday loan type of place. And this is, like, a very astute observation about the way these places are predatory and really, really try to just entrap people. And there's a great back and forth between, you know, the two leads and then a comedic actress, who I think you've seen pop up in a lot of your favorite shows. She's in "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She's also in "Abbott Elementary" a little bit.
LUSE: She was on an episode of It's Been A Minute on - from NPR.
HARRIS: Oh, yes (laughter).
THOMPSON: We're talking about Keyla Monterroso Mejia.
HARRIS: Yes, yeah. She plays Kathy. So she's an agent at this payday loan center (laughter), and she has no sympathy for their plight.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE OF THEM DAYS")
KEKE PALMER: (As Dreux Jones) Are you having a heart attack?
KEYLA MONTERROSO MEJIA: (As Kathy, laughing) I've never seen a credit score this low.
SZA: (As Alyssa) No, I know.
PALMER: (As Dreux Jones) You got problems.
MEJIA: (As Kathy) You guys are old - way too old not to understand how credit works.
PALMER: (As Dreux Jones) Yes.
MEJIA: (As Kathy) You're denied.
PALMER: (As Dreux Jones) You're denied. You're void.
MEJIA: (As Kathy) Denied.
HARRIS: I wish there were more moments like this because there's so many great character actors who pop up in this movie that I feel like the bits were not quite hanging together in the way I'd like it to. It just felt as though there were moments where the banter could have been faster. Like, it felt shaggy in places.
THOMPSON: Shaggy was exactly the word I was going to use (laughter).
HARRIS: And that can be endearing, right? Like, this is clearly trying to evoke an older kind of Black comedy. I'm thinking of "Friday." I'm thinking of "3 Strikes." (Laughter) You all remember that movie...
LUSE: Oh, whoa. Throwback (laughter).
HARRIS: ...Yes, yes, yes - directed by DJ Pooh, was always on BET and - like, from, like, 2000 to 2010. It has that shaggy, like, very kind of low-budget but also very crude at times humor that - you know, your mileage may vary. But overall, I did enjoy it, and I agree that they - you know, SZA and Keke, they could put them in more movies. I love it. But it didn't quite have the same energy and pacing and tightness of something like "Girls Trip," which is, like - I'm sorry. I'm just always going to keep coming back to that movie as, like, one of the standard-bearers of what a R-rated comedy starring Black people can look like. Like, that to me is one of the pinnacles. And it didn't quite have that energy in the way that I wanted it to. But, yeah, I'm curious, Stephen, about your thoughts about this movie.
THOMPSON: My thoughts are very, very similar to yours.
HARRIS: Yeah.
THOMPSON: I really kind of loved marinating in the charisma of these leads. I do think SZA is perfectly on the nose casting as a flighty artist...
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: ...Who you wouldn't necessarily entrust...
HARRIS: Who chooses the wrong men (laughter).
THOMPSON: Yeah, who chooses the wrong men and who I wouldn't necessarily entrust with a logistical task...
HARRIS: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: ...But somebody who is lovable nonetheless. There are some pretty serious script issues. I didn't necessarily think - to kind of get to what Aisha was saying, I think there's a shagginess going on here, where I felt like the script just kind of needed another pass. Some of the way that kind of conflict between the two leads, which is, you know, inevitable in the plot of this film, they're - they have to kind of be together and then be pulled apart and then be brought back together. But the way that they're pulled apart - there are all these scenes where they're, like, in conflict, and we're supposed to think they're equally at fault.
HARRIS: Oh, my God. Yes.
THOMPSON: And yet SZA is so much more at fault.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: Yes. That is true.
HARRIS: I literally wrote in my notes, Dreux needs to dump Alyssa. Why are you friends with her? - in all caps. That's what I wrote.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: Alyssa is, like, 85% to blame.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: But at the same time, I was just sitting in the theater, and I was like, I miss seeing rowdy, raunchy, low- to mid-budget comedies in theaters. You mentioned "Girls Trip," Aisha. You know, "Girls Trip" was a phenomenon, but that was 2017. And obviously, there was a whole pandemic between...
HARRIS: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: ...Then and now that has affected the way movies are distributed. I made the mistake of seeing this movie at, like, 2 o'clock in the afternoon on the Thursday when it opened, so there were, like, two other people in the theater. And I really found myself like, oh, I needed to see this in a crowd.
ROSE: Yeah.
THOMPSON: It feels like it's engineered to be enjoyed in a crowd. You know, we alluded to this blood bank scene with Janelle James. First of all, you put Janelle James in anything, and I'm immediately laughing.
HARRIS: Yeah, yeah.
THOMPSON: And that scene goes wildly over the - not "The Substance" level over the top.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: But it goes pretty far over the top. But I wanted to be cringing in a room full of yelling people (laughter). I think my enjoyment of this film may have been dulled slightly by the absence of a really active crowd.
ROSE: I mean, I saw it in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, and I'll say the jokes that I didn't laugh at a lot of people did.
HARRIS: Yes. Yeah.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
ROSE: And it got me through the moment a little bit easier.
HARRIS: I also saw it at, like, 2 o'clock on a Thursday, but - maybe just 'cause I'm in Oakland, but, like, my theater was pretty packed (laughter). They were enjoying it. My crowd was - and it was probably - I'd say the majority of the people were Black and/or over the age of 30. So, like, do with that what you will, but I think there was a lot of nostalgia. I could sense, like, people were - like, they were into it, right? Like, and it's also - it's California. So it's like, there's just a lot of little things about California...
THOMPSON: Sure.
HARRIS: ...And LA specifically that I think a lot of people in my crowd could relate to, perhaps in a way that, Stephen, your - well, there were only three people in there. But, you know...
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: It was hard to even get a demographic breakdown.
HARRIS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: I think that, like, for all of its shagginess, I still felt like the pieces that worked worked really, really well. And I will say, for - also for all the shagginess, I thought this was, like, a nice debut for Syreeta Singleton, who wrote the film, who also, I believe, was the showrunner of "Rap Sh!t"...
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: ...On Max, which actually I thought was a really well-done, like, TV show.
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: But I feel like there was enough in here that worked and that I enjoyed that I was like, oh, I would love to see what she does next. But I 150% agree. I think that Dreux and Alyssa needed to break up.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: I thought the end of the film - to me, Dreux should have kicked Alyssa to the curb. And I think that she really should have focused on, like, her...
ROSE: Her corporate bag.
LUSE: ...Career and also on her love life...
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: ...With this good-looking - that's what I will say. The film's not lacking in good-looking people, a hundred...
HARRIS: I mean...
LUSE: I mean...
HARRIS: Issa Rae produced this. So, like, of course there's going to be two to three different, very good-looking men.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
LUSE: Wait, Corey Antonio, I want to ask you a question. You had mentioned in a chat that we had last week that you were like - I think I had seen the film, and you had yet to see it, and you had, like, some curiosity about, like, how it was going to speak to, like, the current moment of being, like, a Black in your 20s and in the city (laughter) trying to, like, be on the come up. Did you feel like it was, like, relatable in any aspect, or that it was, like, speaking in an honest way in any aspect?
ROSE: You know, there's a moment at the beginning of the film where they come out, or they're coming back to their apartment, and they see one of their neighbors, and he's outside.
HARRIS: Doing his...
ROSE: All his stuff on the sidewalk.
LUSE: Oh, yeah.
ROSE: And I had this moment where I was like, you know, this is a comedy. Everything is hiked up to this, you know, nth degree. You know, we've already seen somebody get blasted through a wall.
(LAUGHTER)
ROSE: But I think it was a really good representation of, like, what that deepest fear is when you are, like, young and hungry and on the come up and you are working, and you're just trying to make it work. You don't know what happened to this guy. You just know he ain't make his rent.
HARRIS: Right.
ROSE: There are moments in the film, despite all of the, you know, antics, that I feel like really take real fears, and they hike them up to the nth degree and say, OK, this is what it's going to look like in this, you know, hilarious context or what have you. But it fits and it hikes the stakes up for the characters, too. I remember that was the moment where I was like, OK. So, yeah, I do think I found it relatable.
THOMPSON: I wanted to ask you guys about the sense of place in this film. You know, the film is shot in the South LA neighborhood known as The Jungles. That neighborhood is really a big part of this movie. It's almost like a character in the movie.
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: Aisha and Corey Antonio, you guys are both in California. Did you feel that sense of place? Did it feel authentic to you?
HARRIS: I mean, I can't claim I...
THOMPSON: I mean, California is a big place.
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
HARRIS: And also I've only lived here for, like, 4 1/2 years. So I'm not here to, like - I don't want anyone who's actually, like, from LA to be like, you don't know anything about this place.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
HARRIS: I did get a sense from - especially, again, this goes back to the movie "Friday." Like, you have all these different types of personalities, and everyone knows everyone or is, like, two or three degrees away from someone. I thought Aziza Scott, who plays Big Booty Berniece...
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: ...Was, like - she was a character, and she was in some, like, sometimes kind of a caricature. But I still enjoyed that because there are people who are just - they are - that's who they are. Joshua David Neal, who plays Keshawn, Alyssa's deadbeat boyfriend.
THOMPSON: The worst boyfriend.
HARRIS: (Laughter) Worst boyfriend. Everyone just felt real. And the sense of the place where they actually live, the apartment where they live and how, like, you know, they have the older woman who's kind of the mother figure in the place, and then you have, like...
ROSE: Shout out to Vanessa Bell Calloway.
LUSE: Love her.
HARRIS: Vanessa Bell Calloway.
LUSE: Love her so much.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
HARRIS: Again, it just - it felt like the little that I've experienced of LA and what I've experienced of living in the Bay, it felt true in a way. And I would expect nothing less from Issa Rae because, you know, again, she's producing this, and LA is her home, and she - most of the things she does are, like, love letters to LA in a way. And I don't think this is any different.
ROSE: Oh, you know, I was never Miss California myself, either.
(LAUGHTER)
ROSE: But I will say knowing Issa Rae's work and knowing how - like, thinking about "Rap Sh!t" in comparison to this. I am a Florida boy, and the way that she can really sink her teeth - or her production sink their teeth into the culture of a specific place and really live in that and bring it out. It reminds me of, oh, Jocelyn Bioh.
LUSE: Right.
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
ROSE: Another friend of IBAM.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
LUSE: Yes.
ROSE: It reminds me of the way she sets her stories in these really specific places, and part of the enjoyment or part of the pleasure factor of enjoying the art is you get to see how the culture of this specific place really does affect the lives and the narratives of these characters. And I found that to be something that was really true with this piece.
LUSE: I have one last thing that I want to say, which is Keke Palmer needs to be the lead of every movie. Whatever movies are coming out, if they - she could have been lead in "Nosferatu." She could have played - I'm sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: She needs to be the lead in every movie. The same way - talented young man, but the same way Timothee Chalamet - I feel like every time I turn around, it's a new version of Timothee.
THOMPSON: You just want to replace Timothee Chalamet with Keke Palmer?
LUSE: I mean, I think, actually...
HARRIS: Yes.
LUSE: ...He would love that.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: I actually think he would love that.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
LUSE: She has that, like, not to quote, you know, Eli Wallach from "The Holiday," but she has real gumption. And I just - yeah. It's a joy to see her onscreen, and I just wish I could see more of her. That's how I feel, basically. That's my main review of...
ROSE: I agree.
LUSE: ..."One Of Them Days."
ROSE: The way I grew up with my aunties playing Whoopi Goldberg movies, and it was hit after hit, after medium-low hit, after high hit, after all right hit, after...
LUSE: Yes.
ROSE: ...Real good deep-cut hit.
LUSE: Yes.
ROSE: That's how Keke's catalog is going to be if we can own digital media, you know, in five or six years.
HARRIS: (Laughter).
LUSE: Yes.
THOMPSON: More Keke Palmer. All right, well, we want to know what you think about "One Of Them Days." Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh and on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. We'll have a link in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show. Brittany Luse, Corey Antonio Rose, Aisha Harris, thanks so much for being here.
LUSE: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
ROSE: Thank you.
THOMPSON: And just a reminder that signing up for POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR+ is a great way to support our show and public radio, and you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor-free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org/happyhour or visit the link in our show notes.
This episode was produced by Hafsa Fathima and Lennon Sherburne and edited by Mike Katzif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy, and Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all tomorrow.
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