Craig D. Lindsey
Even though it won the grand jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, A Thousand and One hasn’t been on a lot of people’s radar. I mean, did you even know about this movie before you started reading this? Considering I was one of three critics who attended the press screening in my neck of the woods (if it doesn’t involve superheroes, Star Wars or some other big-budgeted IP, most of my regional colleagues will sadly stay at home), it looks like this film will have quite the uphill battle getting eyeballs on it.
It is the sort of film a lot of moviegoers would rather not deal with: a movie about Black people struggling with some shit. (After all, the title is Black-people shorthand for the pressing, burdensome things people have to tend to on the daily.) Hell, I’m Black, and even I would rather watch something that didn’t have anything to do with my people going through The Most in one movie.
It all starts in New York, circa 1994. A woman named Inez (Teyana Taylor) gets out of Rikers Island and returns home to Harlem, looking for hairdressing work and also looking after Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola), her six-year-old son living in foster care. When Terry lands in the hospital, Inez straight up takes him and sets off to make some kind of home life back in the neighborhood. Inez even gets a fake birth certificate for the little one, so no one knows that he’s basically been kidnapped.
Inez tries to get a proper family unit going by inviting new boyfriend Lucky (Will Catlett) to move in. Despite his wandering eye, Lucky is luckily a brotha who’s there for lil’ youngblood. But even Lucky wonders if he and Inez, neither of whom have led the straight-and-narrow life, can put this boy on the road they didn’t travel.
Writer/director A.V Rockwell hops to a couple more time periods: first in 2001 (don’t worry – it has nothing to do with you-know-what), then a few years later, where we see Inez and a teenage Terry (Josiah Cross) going through some strife, especially when a new owner comes in and tries to clear them out so he can get some white tenants in there.
I get the feeling Rockwell might’ve been influenced by the works of foreign filmmakers like Belgium’s Dardenne brothers and Iran’s Ashgar Farhadi, similarly creating a neo-realistic tale of lower/working-class people attempting to stay together in a busy, unforgiving environment that keeps trying to tear them apart. Working with cinematographer Eric. K. Yue and production designer Sharon Lomofsky, Rockwell presents a Big Apple that’s changing subtly but substantially, and a mother and son not picking up on it until it’s too late. From Rockwell’s perspective, gentrification and red tape destroyed more Black families during the turn of the century than crime, drugs, etc – and you know what, she’s not wrong.
I have to admit this is one of those films I admire more than like. Again, movies about Black people going through it can even be a turn-off for Black folk. As emotionally dry it can be, I appreciate Rockwell for creating a mother-son story that’s less about pain and heartache and more about craftiness and stability, leading up to a third-act twist that’s more heartbreaking than shocking. Taylor (a singer/dancer who briefly got the hell out of the music biz after working with/getting jerked around by Kanye West) does some sturdy, impressive work as the no-nonsense, around-the-way girl who doesn’t let the fact that she’s in way over her head stop her from properly raising this kid. She certainly does more here than in her thankless role as seductive eye candy in Coming 2 America.
When it comes to movies about Black folk going through shit, I always follow one rule: If the main characters don’t go through the same awful, depressing shit Precious went through, then it’s worth a watch. And, fortunately, A Thousand and One is a watchable downer.
B
“A Thousand and One” is in theaters Friday.
