At a time when Los Angeles is being devastated by fires and the rest of the national landscape is fraught with division, critics are greeting “One of Them Days” as a much-needed pause for some fun.
The L.A.-set comedy, which opens Friday, stars Keke Palmer and SZA as two young women with nine hours to find $1,500 to cover their rent before they’re evicted. The Associated Press calls it “a welcome warm breeze for a movie landscape that has largely frozen out the comedy.” The Hollywood Reporter says “many of the best scenes punctuate social analysis with ribbing humor,” while the New York Times describes it as a “joyous comedy” where “genuine emotion attends the humor.”
Lawrence Lamont, the former Detroiter who is making his feature-film directing debut with “One of Them Days,” always had this vision for the project. Sitting inside downtown Detroit’s Shinola Hotel this week during a press tour, he says his favorite comedies are ones with heart.
“When you can lean in to something that’s heartfelt and you have those moments that are serious, I think it only enhances the comedy. And this is a story that’s pretty serious,” he says. “The economy is crazy; inflation is crazy. Everyone has had one of those days. The first of every month, people are stressed out. But somehow human beings have been able to laugh at pain, and laughter has become healing. I like to make sure that the heart is there.”
This is a big weekend for the Motor City native, who got his start in music videos and moved to the West Coast to pursue his filmmaking dreams. On Tuesday night, he brought the movie home to the Royal Oak Emagine multiplex for a screening that was heavily attended by his family and friends.
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During the q-and-a session afterward, Lamont gave credit for his understanding of female characters to the strong women who raised him, pointing out his mother, Travice Hall, in the audience. And when asked what he would do if he needed $1,500 in a pinch, he said he would “call on my grandma D.J.,” Dorothy Jenkins, who also was there and raised her hand as the audience laughed and clapped appreciatively.
So how many people did Lamont know at the screening? “Probably like 95% of the audience,” he says with a smile. That warm community feeling is echoed in “One of Them Days,” which features a star-studded cast, fall-down-funny moments of pure slapstick and a believable friendship between the characters portrayed by the multi-talented Palmer, an Emmy-winning television and film star, and SZA, a Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter .
Palmer plays Dreux, a struggling waitress aiming for a management job, while SZA is Alyssa, an artist with more talent than planning skills. When Alyssa’s boyfriend keeps their rent money instead of handing it over to their unforgiving landlord, the roommates find themselves forced into a series of slapstick situations and dangerous misadventures as the clock threatens to run out.
Besides Palmer and SZA, the cast includes comedian and actor Lil Rel Howery, Janelle James of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary, Vanessa Bell Calloway of films like “Coming to America” and “Harriet” and, in a small standout role as a mysterious figure named Lucky, comedian and actor Katt Williams.
Shot in a brisk 20 days, “One of Them Days” is being called a throwback to classic 1990s comedies by some. It was produced by Issa Rae of “Insecure” fame and written by Syreeta Singleton, the showrunner for Max’s “Rap Sh!t” (which was created by Rae). Lamont says he got attached to the project four years ago and never gave up on believing that it would get made. In fact, one of the things that has fueled his career is his belief that he is destined to be a filmmaker — a dream encouraged by those closest to him.
Lamont says his interest in entertainment goes all the way back to a church play he appeared in at age 5 or 6. “I think that was the first time I was, like: ‘Wow there’s something to this storytelling. People are laughing. People are reacting to stuff onstage’,” he remembers.
Growing up, he schooled himself in the cinematic arts by watching his aunt’s collection of movies on VHS tapes. “I would, like, lock myself in her room, and I was watching classics I didn’t know. So I’m watching ‘Taxi Driver’…’Clockwork Orange’… stuff from Spike Lee, (like) ‘Crooklyn,’” he says.
While immersed in theater at Southfield High School, he started learning how to put together a production. “We weren’t just actors in the plays,” he says. “We did tech crew, we did wardrobe, all the things. … I think that started sparking my mind as to what I could do as a filmmaker.”
Around that time, Lamont says, he also had a number of friends who were musicians . “Eventually, musicians need music videos. I was, like, I could direct these videos, so I started writing treatments. My first time directing a video as a teenager, I was on set (and thought) this is what I need to be doing forever.”
Lamont got his start helming music videos for Big Sean, a friend and classmate at Southfield High. They wound up working together on several videos, including “IDFWU, which has gotten 390 million views on YouTube and earned a video of the year prize from BET, and “Single Again,” which was framed as a love story starring Detroit’s Ryan Destiny (who’s currently having her own breakout moment in the movie “The Fire Inside”).
While making videos with Big Sean, J. Cole, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Nas and others, Lamont says he gravitated toward “very narrative, super-cinematic” ideas that resembled short films. “Being able to be creative in music videos has definitely enhanced my skill set as a filmmaker. … I’ve always wanted to do things that help shift the collective consciousness or make people feel moved in a positive way,” he says.
The ultimate goal, however, was making movies and television, which Lamont prepared for by doing the actual work, not studying it in an academic setting. Referring to director Quentin Tarantino’s well-known quote about his path to success, he says he didn’t go to film school, but just went to films.
Lamont moved to Los Angeles more than a decade ago in order to focus on things like taking meetings with studios. He has written on Instagram that he made the move “with my laptop, a couple hundred dollars, and a dream.” He says the support he received in Detroit made the daunting leap possible.
“Growing up, my mom and my family and my teachers, they never snipped my creative wings. Any idea I had, nobody said, ‘You shouldn’t do that.’ … .Just them believing in all my dreams made me feel like this isn’t that crazy of a risk.”
Lamont, who has directed episodes of “Rap Sh!t,” describes his style on sets as “super collaborative, honestly,” but with a strong vision for the content. “It’s about making these characters feel authentic and real,” he says. Unlike comedies that have a mean undertone, his “One of Them Days” offers kindness at unexpected points.
Says Lamont: “We shouldn’t bring people down. I want people to leave this film inspired and hopeful. I just wanted to make it out of love, pure love and pure joy. That comes from when it’s organically funny, not tearing someone else down.”
Lamont says he would love to direct a movie in Detroit and views the city as the source of so much talent these days, both recognized and untapped. “Maybe I’m biased, but I truly think it’s always been that way, since Motown. I think Detroiters have a finger on the pulse in a way that other cities don’t. … Not to compare or make it a competition, but it just seems like when Detroiters are in the forefront or involved in something, things are just elevated even more.”
As he wraps up an interview, Lamont notes that he is scheduled to speak the next day at a University of Southern California film course taught by legendary critic Leonard Maltin. Among Maltin’s prior guests at the popular course are former students Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) and Jon M. Chu (“Wicked”) and director Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”).
There, he’ll be talking about “One of Them Days” and, undoubtedly, sharing stories of his hometown. As he says, “I always think about Detroit, forever.”
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
‘One of Them Days’
In theaters
Rated R; language, sexual material, drug use
1 hour, 37 minutes
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