A Thousand and One

I was so excited for another double feature at the Broadway last night!  I started with A Thousand and One because, after hearing all of the buzz, I really regretted missing it at Sundance this year.  Now that I've seen it, I definitely understand why it won the Grand Jury Prize at the festival because I loved this powerful exploration of what makes a home and family.  Inez de la Paz (Teyana Taylor), who is herself a product of the foster system, impulsively decides to kidnap her six-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) from his foster placement after being released from Rikers Island.  She loves her son fiercely and, even though what she has done is illegal, she is determined that he will have a better life than her.  Through sheer force of will and despite many obstacles she creates a home for Terry and enters a tumultuous relationship with a former boyfriend (Will Catlett) so that he will have a male role model.  As Terry grows older (Aven Courtney at age 13 and Josiah Cross at age 17) Inez is hard on him and pushes him to succeed in school but this gives him many more opportunities than she had.  However, their hard-won sense of security is threatened by the gentrification overtaking New York and by a secret that eventually comes to light.  This story about a young woman trying to build a stable home for her son is made even more poignant by the fact that she never had one herself and I had tears in my eyes several times!  Taylor gives an absolutely brilliant performance because it is so lived in.  It almost seems as if events are happening to her in real time because all of the many emotions she portrays are incredibly authentic.  I was also really impressed with the three actors who play Terry because they all have a stillness that belies what is going on behind their eyes.  I was especially moved by a scene in which Adetola asks why no one is looking for him and another one in which Cross tells his mother he will always remember his home.  This is now one of my favorite movies of 2023 and I highly recommend it!