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Number One on Netflix is a weekly spotlight on whatever is currently the most popular thing on the world’s most popular streaming service. Sometimes it’ll be a movie. Sometimes it’ll be a TV show. Whatever it is, a lot of people are clearly watching, and we’ll try to understand why with a quick review. Today, we’re looking at the Keke Palmer and SZA-starring comedy One of Them Days.
Not to be too inside baseball about this, but since we’ve started the Number One on Netflix series on Fridays, there’s always a point on Wednesday or Thursday when I start looking at what might be about to reach the #1 position, crossing my fingers that it’ll be something I actually want to write about. No offense meant to the inoffensive Netflix original comedy The Life List, but I was delighted to wake up this morning and find that One of Them Days, the Issa Rae-produced romp from this January, had taken the top slot in the movies category.
The easy way to describe One of Them Days is a female-led Friday (1995): It is, after all, a movie about two Black friends running around the less-gentrified areas of Los Angeles over the course of a day, trying to make a certain amount of money before a life-or-death 10:00 p.m. deadline. (In Friday, Ice Cube and Chris Tucker need $200 — in One of Them Days, it’s $5,000. That’s thirty years of inflation for you.)
The difference between the two films is that best friends and roommates Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are far more entrepreneurial, exploring all kinds of side hustles after Alyssa’s loser boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua Neal) steals their rent money for his T-shirt line. They try a Payday Loans company, selling blood, selling sneakers, all while doing their best to get Dreux ready for a potentially life-changing job interview. (For those unfamiliar with Norms, the restaurant where Dreux waitresses and wants to be promoted to manager, it’s a Southern California restaurant chain that’s a significant step up from Denny’s. Their omelettes have cured many a hangover.)
The film’s supporting cast includes hilarious appearances from Lil Rel Howery, Katt Williams, Maude Apatow, Janelle James, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, and Dewayne Perkins, but it’s very much a two-hander between Palmer and SZA, the latter making her acting debut. That is, if you don’t count her extremely cinematic music videos, sometimes inspired directly by movies and sometimes just depicting a mood.
SZA’s become quite the icon since Consequence first profiled her as a Co-Sign in 2013, with multiple albums, features, and Grammy wins to her name. She also received an Oscar nomination for “All the Stars,” her contribution to the Black Panther soundtrack. And it’s worth noting that unlike other musicians making their acting debuts, she’s not coasting on her pre-established talents — unless you count wearing wild-ass outfits as part of her skill set as a performing artist. (Alyssa and Dreux have some memorable wardrobe changes over the course of the movie.)
Not only is SZA not playing a thinly-veiled version of herself — no offense meant to Whitney Houston or Eminem — she’s playing a fully-realized character. As established by writer Syreeta Singleton’s script, Alyssa is a talented artist but held back by her own insecurities, to the point of staying with her terrible-in-all-respects-except-one boyfriend and never pushing herself to do more with her art; her character’s journey ends up being pretty relatable and inspiring by the end.
Palmer’s been a clear star for years, a commanding presence even as a child star with scene-stealing work as an adult in movies including Hustlers and Nope. So it’s impressive to see SZA meet her energy on an equal footing. The most crucial aspect to this movie’s success is believing in Dreux and Alyssa’s friendship, and without question they sell a years-long BFF bond that’s not without its points of conflict, but remains fundamentally grounded in real love.
Perhaps it’s not a huge shock, on a week like this week, that a movie about two young women freaking out about their finances is appealing to Netflix subscribers. Especially since it’s far more fun to watch Dreux and Alyssa contend with jealous side pieces and sneaker-heads than it is to try to understand why the U.S. government is imposing tariffs on an island only occupied by penguins.
Like arguably some of our greatest comedies, it’s nice to see One of Them Days approach its eventual destiny as a cult favorite. More importantly, this is hopefully just the beginning of SZA’s acting career. She recently said that she’d want to play Storm in an X-Men origin story. Let her.
One of Them Days is streaming now on Netflix.
English (US) · 