Review: A Thousand And One

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

A.V. Rockwell's "A Thousand and One" was considered a surprise winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. I haven't seen many of the films screened at the festival yet - but the only surprise about Rockwell's film taking the prize for me is that there was any doubt. 

This is a very powerful, beautifully acted, and engrossing film. It tells what one might call a small story, but the culmination of everything that takes place over a period of a decade and a half make the film a mini-epic. 

The story opens in 1994 as Inez (a terrific Teyana Taylor) is being released from a yearlong stint on Rikers Island for a crime that's never made quite clear. Inez is a person who takes shit from absolutely nobody and, upon returning home, shows up at her old place of work and squabbles with her ex-boss - who won't take her back - before staying with a friend, whose mother instantly clashes with the new houseguest.

Most importantly, the 22-year-old Harlem resident feels the need to be near her son, Terry (played by Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross at ages 6, 13, and 17, respectively). The boy has for several years been living in foster care, but when Inez visits him in the hospital following what appears to be an accident at a foster home, she decides that he'd be happier and live a fuller life at home with her. So, she basically kidnaps him from the hospital.

Struggling to scrape together money for food and to find a place to live, Inez - who exhibits tough love toward her shy young son - pays her way by doing women's hair and eventually finds other work as well as romance with a man named Lucky (William Catlett), who has his share of flaws but ultimately warms to Terry and acts fatherly toward him.

The film at first plays like a thriller - and there is suspense surrounding whether Inez and Terry's secret will be discovered as they mostly live off the radar - but it grows into a captivating saga that can be summarized by that quote about the family you choose. 

Changes in time are often marked by music (some mid-1990s Wu-Tang Clan pops onto the soundtrack) or audio news clips about changes taking place in New York - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cleaning up Times Square, the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo by NYPD cops, stop and frisk, the gentrification of the city's neighborhoods, and the election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The societal changes involved in these moments out of time also make subtle commentary on the action taking place in the film.

The film's solid script and direction are complemented by excellent performances across the board. All three young actors portraying Terry are very good at capturing the various stages of this young man's difficult childhood, while Catlett provides some subtle supporting work as Terry's father figure. But it's Taylor's breakthrough performance as Inez that makes the film so powerful. I'd had little previous exposure to Taylor but the performance has the feeling of one in which an actress disappears completely into a role. 

It's still early in the year, but "A Thousand and One" is the first movie of 2023 that feels like a contender. This is a powerful film with strong performances and captivating storytelling that stays with you long after the credits roll. I'm excited to see what all involved get up to next.