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\u2019m Black, and even I would rather watch something that didn\u2019t have anything to do with my people going through The Most in one movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s basically been kidnapped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s there for lil\u2019 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\u2019t travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I get the feeling Rockwell might\u2019ve been influenced by the works of foreign filmmakers like Belgium\u2019s Dardenne brothers and Iran\u2019s 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\u2019s changing subtly but substantially, and a mother and son not picking up on it until it\u2019s too late. From Rockwell\u2019s perspective, gentrification and red tape destroyed more Black families during the turn of the century than crime, drugs, etc \u2013 and you know what, she\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s less about pain and heartache and more about craftiness and stability, leading up to a third-act twist that\u2019s 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\u2019t let the fact that she\u2019s 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<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to movies about Black folk going through shit, I always follow one rule: If the main characters don\u2019t go through the same awful, depressing shit Precious went through, then it\u2019s worth a watch. And, fortunately, A Thousand and One <\/em>is a watchable downer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A Thousand and One” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/thousand2-1024x682.jpg\")
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Writer\/director A.V Rockwell hops to a couple more time periods: first in 2001 (don\u2019t worry \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\nB<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n