A Thousand and One

It's a drama about what makes a family set in New York City, mostly Harlem, between 1994 and 2005. It follows a high-energy but emotionally-damaged young African American woman who tries to create a family in compensation for the one she never had.

In 1994, Inez (Teyana Taylor) has just been released from a prison term for stealing. She is hot-headed and confrontational and has difficulty maintaining relationships. Inez sees her son on the street, a ward of the state, and in foster care. When Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola/Aven Courtney/Josiah Cross) is injured in a fall, Inez goes to the hospital and convinces him to leave with her secretly. She cautions him not to leave their living quarters because the state would seize him again. She arranges fake papers for Terry under a different name.

We follow a deep relationship grow between Inez and Terry. Later Lucky (Will Catlett), Inez's partner who has just emerged from prison, joins the small family. Lucky and Terry also develop their own relationship, even as Inez and Lucky have a sometimes rocky one. We learn that Terry is brilliant but has a very reserved personality. Counselors at school encourage him to attend a tech school for gifted children, to which Terry reluctantly assents. Finally, before Terry turns 18, multiple events cause chaos for Inez and Terry, with a particular twist at the film's end.

"A Thousand and One" is a taunt, well-done drama. Teyana Taylor, who is very striking in appearance and dominates the screen any time she is on it, carries the movie. Will Catlett is an excellent Lucky. Aaron Kingsley Adetola is remarkable as the six-year-old Terry. However, I found Aven Courtney and Josiah Cross less impressive as the teenage Terry. Perhaps the problem was the script; for someone as smart a teenager as the film portrayed Terry, he seemed too passive concerning his surroundings and his questions about his early personal history.

This movie demanded a rating and a review from me ; that is how good it is. You to to the movies hoping to see something this well made and feel lucky if you get that result.

I Came out of the theater feeling so glad that I saw it. The first thing you have to say is that this is storytelling at its absolute best.

In the beginning a few scenes seem bit strained but because of the acting and direction the movie just gets better and better and without spoiling anything , you think you know what's going on but you don't which makes for a surprising plot twist at the end.

I am not black but this movie feels genuine and authentic in the way ' Emily the Criminal ' did. This movie would not have been made without ' independent funding ' : no studio movie this and no big budget or gimmicks, just great acting, story telling , concept and direction. Certain to be picked up by a streaming platform cuz maybe the the content they finance and produce will never come close to the quality of 'A Thousand and One '

The first 10-15 minutes of this film had me wriggling in my seat and wondering if I was going to be able to sit through it. It starts with the central character, Inez, a hard-faced inmate leaving Riker's Island and re-starting her life back in New York after an unspecified prison term. Inez is clearly a tough cookie and even her first meeting her son Terry on the street had me silently screaming "run, kid, run!" It turns out that Terry had been put in foster care and, when he ends up in hospital shortly after, Inez goes to visit him and decides to kidnap him from the authorities under whose care he had been placed.

However, I found myself getting sucked in to the story, as grim and sometimes hard to watch as it was. Here we had a woman who had nothing - no money, no home and few prospects - grabbing a child because she somehow believed she could give him a better life. Her first act after snatching him was to phone around former acquaintances to beg for a free place to stay and it was truly heartbreaking to watch her desperation and the glimpse of the life she had brought this child into.

Yet she manages to get on her feet and the rest of the movie follows her, Terry and the man she marries, Lucky, as they if not thrive certainly survive. As compelling as the human characters become, there is another star of this film and that is the New York neighbourhood of Harlem. With the liberal use of overhead shots and long street scenes we see the neighbourhood go from grungy through a gradual gentrification. This is reflected more intimately in a sub plot where their new landlord tries to manipulate the family out of their low rent home, and leave them with fallen ceilings, broken pipes and a non-functioning shower.

There is a plot twist at the end that made my jaw drop which I see some people didn't like, but which I thought fleshed out the character of Inez quite well and gave depth to her motivations. All in all a gritty movie that was hard to watch in some places, a raw and honest depiction of the brutal poverty in which people sometimes live, but underscored by excellent performance by all.

This features quite a strong performance from a convincing Teyana Taylor. She is "Inez" who decides that she wants to reclaim her young son "Terry" from his life on the streets of New York. What now ensues illustrates quite well the difficulties they both face as they both grow up with little by way of opportunity - or money - but determined to stick together despite their not always seeing eye to eye. Along the way, she marries "Lucky" (William Catlett), a decent man who offers some stability and it begins to look like "Terry" (by this stage played by Josiah Cross, but played well as a child by Aaron Kingsley Adetola) might just have a chance. Thing is, as the audience know by now, the relationship between mother and son is not as it seems - and the impending action of the authorities, coupled with a rather unscrupulous landlord, look like the wrecking ball is en route to their dreams. It meanders a bit too much for me, this film. It could have easily lost twenty minutes and the writing could have focussed better on developing the "Terry" character a little more, but it's still quite a powerful assessment of family values, loyalty and civic indifference that ought to make anyone sit up and take notice. It doesn't need a big screen - but is worth a watch on the telly.

Premiering at Sundance, A Thousand and One tells the story of a mother and son, navigating against hardship, the weight of New York City policies, gentrification, and a secret. There's a feeling of tension throughout the film, waiting for what may happen to Inez and Terry, though it also evokes the edge and breathlessness that comes with living with the weight of poverty and NYC racism. For its beats about NYC history, the film serves reminders of the barriers faced by Black families in Harlem in 1990's and into 2000's. If there is a criticism, there are moments when the script could have been tighter, perhaps a bit more time with Terry. Teyona Taylor is a star for carrying so much of the emotional weight across this film, but also William Catlett as Lucky plus Josiah Cross and Aaron Kingsley Adetola as Terry are stellar.