Tom Lister Jr. as Deebo in Friday.Image via New Line Cinema
By
André Joseph
Published 20 minutes ago
André Joseph is a movie features writer at Collider. Born and raised in New York City, he graduated from Emerson College with a Bachelor's Degree in Film. He freelances as an independent filmmaker, teacher, and blogger of all things pop culture. His interests include Marvel, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Robocop, wrestling, and many other movies and TV shows.
His accomplishments as a filmmaker include directing the indie movie Vendetta Games now playing on Tubi, the G.I. Joe fan film "The Rise of Cobra" on YouTube, and receiving numerous accolades for his dramatic short film Dismissal Time. More information can be found about André on his official website.
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Black cinema in the early ‘90s shed light on the struggles of surviving life in the economically deprived South Central, Los Angeles. From John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood to the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society, these seminal classics created hard-hitting portraits of young black men often facing a crossroads between the lure of thug life and a promising future outside a dead-end neighborhood. This narrative was flipped upside down ironically by the star of Singleton’s 1991 masterpiece, Ice Cube, when he co-wrote and starred in F. Gary Gray’s hood comedy, Friday.
Released in early 1995, Friday did not generate watercooler conversations about hardships in the black community like the aforementioned social dramas of the period. Instead, the film depicted the overlooked aspects of life in the hood with levity and charm. Even the darker moments of gang violence are portrayed in a humorous light rather than emphasizing tragedy. Launching the careers of future stars such as Chris Tucker, Bernie Mac, and Meagan Good, Friday was a sleeper hit on release, earning $27 million on a $3.5 million budget. Critics were equally high on Cube’s comedic turn, holding a 77% critics' score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Though it spawned two sequels, an animated series, and transitioned the hard-edged rapper into future comedic fare, the original Friday, now streaming for free on Tubi, remains one of the most quotable movies of the ‘90s.
What Is 'Friday' About?
Ice Cube as Craig and Chris Tucker as Smokey looking surprised in Friday.
Image via New Line CinemaSet in the course of one day in South Central, Craig Jones (Cube) is a homebody slacker who just got fired on his day off work. He spends the majority of his Friday at his home's doorstep, where he hangs out with a low-level drug dealer and pothead simply named Smokey (Tucker). As the duo smoke away at a stash of marijuana intended for sale, they soon have their lives threatened by Smokey’s intimidating supplier Big Worm (Tiny “Zeus” Lister, Jr.). Due to the loss of supply, Craig and Smokey have until 10:00 pm to repay Big Worm $200 or face serious consequences.
Over the course of the day, as Craig and Smokey exhaust every option to get the money for Big Worm, they witness the various ongoings with their eclectic mix of neighbors dealing with their own problems, including habitual liar Ezel (Anthony Johnson), the lowly Red (DJ Pooh, also co-writer) seeking his stolen chain from Big Worm, and drug addicted freeloader Felisha (Angela Means). Additionally, Craig is smitten with the articulate Debbie (Nia Long) while facing accusations of infidelity by his jealous girlfriend, Joi (Paula Jai Parker). With the 10:00 pm deadline closing in, Craig has to decide if he’s going to give in to Big Worm’s demands or take a stand for himself, Smokey, and his community.
With Cube and Tucker at the center of Friday’s chaos, the screenplay never depicts them like convicted felons or young men living in broken homes. They simply try to get through the trivial aspects of everyday life within the whimsical tone of the comedy. The audience does not have to live in their shoes to see eye-to-eye with them. Everybody has at least one trouble-making friend, a neighbor spreading gossip, overbearing parents, and the various quirky personalities walking down their block. What Friday did that Boyz in the Hood and its contemporaries did not was simply make the hood look fun instead of violence-fueled.
‘Friday’ Is One of the Most Quoted Movies of the ‘90s
In a 2017 interview with Complex, Cube revealed how the Cheech and Chong movies served as inspiration for Friday’s hilarious take on hood life, a contrast from the stereotypical depiction often seen in the media at large.
“Everybody was looking at our neighborhood like it was hell on Earth, like the worst place you can grow up in America. And I’m like, Why? I didn’t see it all that way. I mean, I knew it was crazy around where I grew up, but we had fun in the hood. We used to trip off the neighborhood.”
In the years since Friday’s release, it gained a cult following on home video and cable. A major reason for such a rise in popularity is because of Cube and DJ Pooh’s script being littered with rich supporting characters delivering rhythmic dialogue woven into the fabric of the environment they inhabit. Throwaway lines such as "Bye, Felisha", "You got knocked the **** out!", and "It’s Friday, you ain’t got no job, and you ain’t got nothin’ to do!" became more than just movie quotes. They became timeless pieces of pop culture used in online memes, music, and even homaged in movies such as the biopic Straight Outta Compton about Cube’s affiliation with the hip-hop group N.W.A. Cube and Grey struck gold not only with the witty script but also by combining established stand-up comedians like Tucker and John Witherspoon with dramatic staples of the hood movie genre including Long and Regina King, playing to what’s familiar to the audience while painting that alternate view of life in South Central.
30 years after arriving in cinemas, Friday continues to be as relevant today as it was in 1995. Streaming on Tubi today, it comes at the right time when audiences need a good laugh once again.
Friday is now streaming on Tubi in the US.
Friday
Like R Comedy Drama Release Date April 26, 1995 Runtime 91 Minutes Director F. Gary Gray Writers Ice Cube, DJ PoohCast
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