There is a 90s vibe to ‘One Of Them Days’, which could be construed as a female buddy movie along the lines of 1995’s ‘Friday’ starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Both films showcase two black Los Angeles friends who over the course of a single day have to come up with the money to pay a drug dealer if they are going to survive and, in the case of ‘One Of Them Days’, avoid eviction from their home. Like ‘Run Lola Run’ the clock is ticking and they have limited time to achieve the outcome they desire, as they race against time to find the money their low pay jobs don’t allow them to manage.

Living pay cheque to pay cheque, Dreux (Keke Palmer) and her roommate Alyssa (SZA) try every means open to them, including donating blood and selling a pair of trainers at rip off prices, in order to save their skin. Along the way they encounter a loan shark who charges exorbitant interest rates, at nearly two thousand per cent, and needless to say their ventures tend not to work out. But, this is a buddy movie, and the teamsmanship get them to find ingenious, including entrepreneurial, means to raise the money and seize back the initiative.

Bad luck follows them everywhere, including to a job interview at which Dreux initially impresses, only for the forces of chaos to catch up with her. Really, this is a film that spells out the way gentrification is advancing and Dreux and Alyssa are fighting it, aware that their neighbourhood is changing all about them but they are in no position to arrest the direction of travel. And what we admire in this infectious, charismatically driven film is the way that it works as a microcosm of their lives, as they have less than twelve hours to sort their existence out and go beyond the limits of endurance. They have plenty of ambition but only limited means, yet their defiance and indefatigability never diminishes.