A Thousand and One 

Written and directed by A.V. Rockwell

Starring Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, and Aaron Kingsley Adetola

Premiered Jan. 22, 2023 (Sundance)

Released in theaters (US) Mar. 31, 2023

A Thousand and One is not a great movie, but it’s a good movie with some very good moments. It’s also a movie that is going to launch several careers, including that of A.V. Rockwell, its writer and director; Teyana Taylor, who plays Inez, the main character; and Will Catlett, who plays Lucky, Inez’s on-again, off-again marital partner.

Set in the 1990s and 2000s, it follows a woman who decides to kidnap a child named Terry (that she claims is hers) out of the foster care system and raise him as a single mother in Harlem. The timeline, which begins with the kidnapping and stretches until the child is ready to go to college, depicts all the challenges you would imagine she would face.

What I liked best about the movie – something that many critics mentioned – was the acting. Starting with Teyana Taylor as the lead character, but also including Will Catlett and several of the story’s chief supporting actors. They were all, at least for me, authentic and interesting. They left me feeling that there was so much more to them than the film had time to show me.

There were a few gratuitous social messages shoved into the story that detracted from the drama, such as B-footage criticizing Mayor Giuliani for his stop-and-frisk policing policies, and two-dimensional characterizations of White landlords. On the other hand, I very much liked the fact that A.V. Rockwell wove into the movie the issue of the importance of Black fathers in Black culture. (Which, if you listen to the likes of Thomas Sowell and Candice Owens, is the number one reason for the crime and lack of economic, educational, and social advancement that has been a fact for Blacks in America since the War on Poverty began in the 1960s under Lyndon Johnson.)

There was one more problem I had with the movie that Brian Tallerico mentioned in his review:

“Much of [the] veracity collapses in a final act I’m not sure the film needs. Without spoiling, there’s another secret in Inez and Terry’s life that completely recasts everything that came before in a different light, and the narrative decision pushed me out of a story that had felt so intimate for so long. The movie doesn’t need a twist. It’s done so much to make Inez, Terry, and the world they inhabit feel real; it’s a splash of cold water to be reminded this is a melodrama, and maybe always was. The final scenes are manipulative in a fashion that the movie otherwise defies for most of its runtime.”

But these criticisms are forgivable because of the strength of the plot and the quality of the acting. A Thousand and One is a movie I would definitely recommend.

Critical Reception

Despite the fact that, as I said above, I didn’t think A Thousand and One was a great movie, critics gave it mostly high marks.

* “Come for Taylor’s breakout performance, stay for a tender, confidently told story of Black motherhood and sacrifice. Rockwell is one to watch.” (Amon Warmann, Empire Magazine)

* “The delicately pitched performances, luminous cinematography, and quiet, jazzy score counteract [any] excess, creating a stately feel that’s rare in stories of contemporary urban suffering.” (Leslie Felperin, Financial Times)

* “Character portraits just don’t come any sharper than A Thousand and One.” (Bob Mondello, NPR)

You can watch the trailer here.