A Thousand and One

The director maps the contours of a destabilised existence. It is one thing to put us in Terry and Inez’s shoes, quite another to make us feel, as Rockwell does, the ground shifting unpredictably beneath them.

Come for Taylor’s breakout performance, stay for a tender, confidently told story of Black motherhood and sacrifice. Rockwell is one to watch.

The directorial debut from AV Rockwell is rather special.

[A] heartfelt melodrama that consistently sparks and sputters without ever fully igniting.

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.

Sacrifice is the critical ingredient in survival for those of us who grew up Black and poor, and this film knocks that fact out of the park, so well that the act of sacrifice becomes kind of a character.

There is something delicately novelistic in the way A Thousand and One tackles its themes of family and gentrification, helped by a range of nuanced performances (especially from Teyana Taylor).

"And while strides may have been made to put more space between their fucked up beginning and the bright future ahead for Terry—the truth that’s been stewing and haunting their home built on lies is bound to bubble over to the surface."

Every performance in the film feels just right, making this film's time-jumping narrative seem authentic at every turn. And the main event ... is the performance of Teyana Taylor as Inez.

A Thousand and One is often a quiet film, even in its scenes of strife and devastation of both the emotional and financial varieties.