Movies That Made Us: FRIDAY!

“A lot can go down between Thursday and Saturday…”

When you’re spotlighting important Black contributions in film, it’s easy to lean towards the ultra-serious films and dramas, and look over the long history of influential comedy films.

Since we’re on a bit of a 90′s kick this week, we can’t forget one of the most famous 90′s Black comedies — “Friday”. Directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line in 1995, this movie stars Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, Jr. and John Witherspoon. This movie, one of three in a series (there are rumors of a 4th film) revolves around a day in the Southern California lives of Craig and Smokey (Ice Cube and Chris Tucker). Smokey gets into debt and must repay $200 on Friday night. By 10pm.

For many, “Friday” was the first time they’d seen Ice Cube in a comedic context. For others, “Friday” was the first time they’d seen South Central Los Angeles in a way that wasn’t terrifying. There were people who owned homes. Had jobs. Ran businesses. “Friday” owes a lot to “Good Times” in that it shows life in a lower income neighborhood without being all “dark cloud”. Life in the hood wasn’t ALL war zone every day. Kids grew up. Teenagers had lives. Parties happened. “Friday” shows this one section of South Central Los Angeles as a true village, with elders, parents, dangers, and good times. Although it has many images we all wish would go away, it also had images of progressive, working people trying to make a living for their families.

The problem with “Friday” is not “Friday’s” fault at all. It’s that a lot of comedy scripts never really advanced past this movie. There are so many remakes and derivatives of this one film that it has made a genre of “hood comedies” a last stop for D list actors. But let’s not forget: Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tiny Lister, Regina King and Chris Tucker went on to really big things after this film. This was a great vehicle to show their versatility. It’s also important to note that as of this film, John Witherspoon career got stuck in a loop. We never got to see what he could do. He has forever been typecast as Craig’s father, and it’s unfortunate. The man might be able to do a range of emotions, but the world keeps waiting for him to say someone got knocked the f*** out.

This movie is on DVD, and you can get it from our friends at Urban Film Club.