Title: A Thousand and One
Release Date: March 31, 2023
Director: A.V. Rockwell
Production Company: Sight Unseen | Hillman Grad Productions | Makeready
Summary/Review:
In the mid-90s, Inez (Teyana Taylor) is released from a prison sentence on Rikers Island and finds her 6-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) is in the hospital after an injury at his foster home. Inez abducts Terry and attempts to make an ordinary life in Harlem finding work, a place to live, and marrying a longtime lover, Lucky (Will Catlett). Set against the gentrifying of New York City under the leadership of Giuliani and Bloomberg, the film shows Inez and family attempting to scrap by at the edges of poverty. The direction really captures the feel of the changing city in the 90s and 00s.
The narrative jumps forward twice showing Terry at 13 (Aven Courtney) and ultimately at 17 (Josiah Cross). Terry succeeds at school but struggles with the trauma of his past and his secret identity. There’s a major plot twist in the final act of this movie that I feel kind of makes the story more
sensationalistic and I don’t really like it. Nevertheless, the strong acting, especially by Taylor, carries this movie through.
Rating: ***1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 