Teyana Taylor

William Catlett

Josiah Cross

Aven Courtney

Aaron Kingsley Adetola

Terri Abney

Delissa Reynolds

Amelia Workman

Adriane Lenox

Mark Gessner

Gavin Schlosser

Jolly Swag

Azza El

Alicia Pilgrim

Jennean Farmer

Kal-El White

Jamier Williams

Naya Desir-Johnson

Mychelle Dangerfield

John Maria Gutierrez

Artrece Johnson

Emmy Harrington

Desi Domo

Bianca LaVerne Jones

Rudolph Giuliani

A.V. Rockwell

Eddie Vaisman

Julia Lebedev

Lena Waithe

Brad Weston

Oren Moverman

Jamin O'Brien

Negin Salmasi

Rachel Jacobs

Javian Ashton Le

Sabine Hoffman

Eric K. Yue

Gary Gunn

Sharon Lomofsky

Lauren Crawford

Melissa Vargas

Alina Barreto

Jill McKay

Marsha Page

Minna Moily

Clarence McLay

Laura Heinzinger

Luciano Vignola

Gabby Ahuna

Lucien Harriot

Julieta Gleiser

Sean Perry

Rishi Rajani

Kristan Sprague

Avy Kaufman

Kimi Duncan

Roberto Alvarado Jr.

Matthew Green

Donté Bouyer

Teena Marie Delerme-Lugo

Daniel Lugo

Laird Fryer

Ailin Gong

Matt Rigby

Daniel Sheppard

Aleksandra Stojanovic

Roy Savoy

Roy T. Anderson

Don Hewitt Sr.

David Shumbris

Evelyn Ov

Rickey Tripp

Drama

Crime

A Thousand and One

Sight Unseen Pictures

Makeready

Hillman Grad Productions

United States of America

English

Português

Español

new york city

parent child relationship

convicted felon

woman director

felon

1990s

mother son relationship

CinemaSerf

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.

Brent Marchant

It’s been said that a mother’s love for her child runs so deep that she’ll do virtually anything to protect her young. But is it possible to carry things too far? That’s a question raised in writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s debut feature about a mother with a criminal record (Teyana Taylor) who kidnaps her young son (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) out of foster care upon her release from prison. She questions the adequacy of the care he is receiving as a ward of the state, and so she snatches him from his foster caretaker and hides him away as she seeks to get her life together. Over the next 11 years (1994-2005), she largely succeeds at this, too, even in the midst of many challenges, including an often-uneven relationship with her former partner in crime (literally) (Will Catlett) and a rapidly changing New York, especially in her home neighborhood of Harlem. Despite a somewhat slow and unfocused start, the story deepens as this unlikely new family seeks to get on its feet. However, the somewhat-disjointed opening act sets the tone for the overall narrative, which gets away from its basic premise and starts meandering in engaging but largely unrelated territory, an issue that hampers the focus of this story until near the end. These shortcomings are defrayed to a degree by its fine performances, most notably Taylor and the gifted actors playing her son at ages 13 and 17 (Aven Courtney and Josiah Cross, respectively), but these portrayals aren’t quite enough to overcome the inherent drawbacks in the direction of the script. With that said, though, the filmmaker nevertheless shows promise in telling moving tales, so here’s hoping this start lead to better efforts in her future endeavors.

A story about a mother-son relationship and how it changes over the course of a decade. With a background setting of New York in the 90s and 00s, the movie depicts how issues like poverty, crime, race, and gentrification interact. Well acted with beautiful characters. Except the kid can be a little too sniveling at times. I mean, I get that there's childhood trauma and abandonment issues, but geeeeez.

A THOUSAND AND ONE wins BEST FIRST FEATURE at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards

A Failed Foster Care System Extended Preview

A Thousand And One's A.V. Rockwell & Teyana Taylor Bond Over Their Love of Crooklyn | Five Firsts

A.V. Rockwell on her film A THOUSAND AND ONE

How Family In A Thousand And One Is Beyond Bloodlines | Origin Story

"Little Boy" Official Clip

A Thousand and One's A.V. Rockwell On Authentic Representation in Casting | 60 Second Film School

A Thousand and One( 2023)

Times change. Love stays the same.

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A review by CinemaSerf

Written by CinemaSerf on Tue May 16 2023

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