Friday (1995) * *

Directed by:  F. Gary Gray

Starring:   Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Bernie Mac, Tiny Lister, Nia Long, John Witherspoon

Friday depicts one Friday in the life of residents of a South Central LA neighborhood.    Or, more specifically, a group of oddballs populating one its streets.   The sun is shining, but there is tension in the air.    Friday, unlike dramas like Boyz 'n the Hood (1991), deals with the desperation these people must feel every day in comedic fashion.    There is no plot to speak of, unless you count one of the characters attempting to wrestle up the cash he owes a drug dealer he ripped off, but one is not necessarily needed.     What is lacking is someplace to direct all of the actors' energy.    Friday plays like a series of unrelated vignettes with no particular thread to string it together.    It feels like it is making itself up as it goes along and we are lost in the shuffle.

Friday opens on a Friday morning with Craig Jones (Ice Cube) waking up one day removed from being fired on his day off.     He doesn't appear to be in any hurry to find another job.    He lives with his working parents, including a father who holds frank discussions with Craig while sitting on the toilet moving his bowels.     Craig's best friend is the motormouth Smokey (Tucker), a small-time drug dealer who ripped off a bigger-time drug dealer and is scrambling to pay him back.     Smokey smokes weed almost non-stop, so it is no surprise to see a Cheech and Chong poster on his bedroom wall.    I will once again express my view that smoking weed in and of itself isn't funny.     Not even the delusions and highness are funny either.     Cheech and Chong added a satirical element to it.    It wasn't the smoking that was funny, but their attitudes toward it and the hell they put themselves through just to smoke a joint.     See a Cheech and Chong movie and you will see what I'm talking about.   

During the day, Craig and Smokey encounter many strange denizens of their block, including a bullying hulk (Lister) who rides around on a stolen bike and pounds anyone who looks at him crooked into oblivion.     There are women who fall into the categories of a.) women either Smokey or Craig are currently screwing, b.) Women who want to screw Smokey or Craig, or c.) Women whom Smokey or Craig dumped who keep coming around looking for more.  

Craig and Smokey live in the kind of neighborhood where an open window is an invitation to a robbery.    The events in Friday are executed at a breakneck pace, but we still find our attentions drifting.     It is hard to fault the performances.     Tucker is, of course, the loud motormouth wiseguy we can't help but like anyway.     Ice Cube is gruff and no-nonsense; the quintessential Ice Cube performance.   You decide whether that is good or bad.   John Witherspoon has some funny moments and some words of wisdom when some are sorely needed.  

Friday is not misogynistic or overtly violent.     It has almost a sweetness to its view of the neighborhood, which is refreshing.      But, I wish it came together as a coherent, cohesive film that has occasional, but not frequent laughs.     It has energy, but spent on nothing in particular.