A Thousand and One (2023, A.V. Rockwell) (Patreon)

60/100

Fell for this instantly: Gary Gunn's grandiose yet laid-back score; ardent tours of NYC buildings and street life; exposition that's been sliced to the bone (we get literally one shot of Inez in Rikers, then she's just out sans any of the standard processing bullshit); exterior-lit interiors that DP Eric K. Yue has taken care to make sure aren't distractingly blown out, creating a look I'll call What If Kaminski Could Fucking Relax? (and also a reasonable digital facsimile of 35mm ca. the '90s); an arrestingly extroverted performance by Teyana Taylor (previously unknown to me) and an arrestingly introverted performance by a kid named Aaron Kingsley Adetola; throwaway details that aren't (I made a note of Inez's friend pointing out the missing dash on her apartment door, which we don't even get a clear view of then; realized an hour later that the film's title derives from said void); most of all, just the instant recognition that yo, we got a goddamn filmmaker here, which nowadays I experience in maybe one indie release out of 40. That's a whole lotta praise for something I wound up mixed on, but Rockwell's ambition just exceeds her grasp—she attempts to root a very particular (and increasingly melodramatic) personal story in the history of New York's gentrification ca. Guiliani through Bloomberg, and the two don't really dovetail in an organic way. Her screenplay strategically withholds a key piece of information until the end (though I guessed it very early), and that only muddies the thematic waters; however sneakily rapacious the landlord's actions, he (and his ilk) aren't even indirectly to blame for what Inez did 15 years earlier. Also, the film's look becomes much less vibrant in hour two, its rhythm considerably more staid, and while both of those shifts are clearly by design, I was nonetheless disappointed (particularly since they coincide with an emotional shift toward the expressly therapeutic). Still an incredibly promising debut, the kind that would've opened New Directors / New Films once upon a time. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the '90s in all kinds of ways, and that's why I adored the first half.