Friday

Friday (1995) takes place over one day and is almost entirely set on a porch. Craig is fired on Friday morning. It emerges that his best friend Smokey has smoked the weed he was supposed to sell, and the two of them have until evening to find two hundred dollars. For most of the film they sit on the porch, watch the neighbourhood and talk. Why the film was written matters. Ice Cube co-wrote it and said his aim plainly: the neighbourhood films of the period, including Boyz n the Hood which he was in, all ended in violence and death. He wanted to show the funny side of the same street. Here the block is not dangerous, it is boring. Chris Tucker was unknown until then and broke out as Smokey. He refused to return for the sequels, citing pay and the conflict between the language and drug content and his faith. F. Gary Gray came from music videos and this was his first feature. He later directed Straight Outta Compton. It was made for three and a half million dollars and took around twenty eight million, which is why two sequels followed. It runs 91 minutes. Good for: nineties comedy, cult films, and hip hop culture. Less good for: heavy language and drug use, almost no plot, and some of the humour belongs to its period.