A Thousand and One - Episode 244

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to discuss and review the 2023 film, "A Thousand and One" starring Teyana Taylor, Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, Josiah Cross, Will Catlett, and Terri Abney. The follows the fiercely loyal Inez who kidnaps her son Terry from the foster care system, then mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability, in a rapidly changing New York City.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I have no idea the last down, find me change. Okay, let's
wrap with Jamesonne. You know.Hello, welcome to a brand new episode

(00:22):
of Black and Black Cinema. I'myour host, Jay, I'm here my
co host Micah. Hey, Terrence, what's up? And try? All
right, guys, we're back tothis episode two forty four a thousand and
one. This is playing exclusively onPeacock, So if you're looking to find
this before listening to the episode,go to the streaming service peacock. You

(00:44):
can watch it there. The filmis starring Tianna Taylor, Aaron Kinsley,
Kingsley at Atola, Even Courtney,Josiah Cross, Will Catlett in Terry Abney.
So the film, the twenty twentythree film follows a mother who kidnaps

(01:06):
her son from from foster care andthe two of them, you know,
run off and she goes to raisehim as she normally would because she was
because he was taken from her whileshe was in prison. So just a
bit of like show information. One. I'll be looking down most of the
episode because my normal setup is nothere, So I apologize for people watching

(01:30):
video. The other thing is wewe're gonna do this episode, and then
we're gonna be on a bit ofa hiatus for maybe two or three weeks,
and then we'll be back, Sojust keep that in mind. And
when we return, we may beaudio only for a couple of weeks after
that, but we'll try to getback on audio and video as soon as

(01:51):
we can. But we'll try tolet people know via social media and everything
else when we'll be back, butafter this episode, expect maybe a two
to three week delay. Okay,all right, So none of us have
seen this movie beforehand, so i'llgo first. Look, I thought it
was pretty good. I thought,I thought Tianna Taylor's I hadn't seen her

(02:14):
in anything else, but I thoughther performance was pretty good, actually very
good. It was interesting, LikeI thought it was an interesting film.
I wasn't expecting certain things in thefilm at all, but I thought overall,
all of the acting was pretty good, including the multiple kids who played
the son, because it goes fromthe time he's I guess he's like he's

(02:38):
six all the way through being seventeen. So yeah, I look, I
thought I thought everybody was good,and I thought again, I thought Tiana
Taylor was especially good as Anez andI also thought Will Catlett, who played
Lucky, was very good as well. So yeah, the kids who were
playing Terry were interesting and also reallygood casting because they all really did look

(03:02):
alike, especially like the six yearold to the seventeen year old, like
they actually looked like he did looklike a like a grown version of him.
It was kind of wild. Soshout out to the person who did
the casting as well. But yeah, overall, I really enjoyed this.
I thought it was good. Youshould check it out. If you have
not seen it, I will goto Michael. I agree this movie is

(03:24):
This movie is very good. Iecho a lot of which said I had
to look up if Tiana Taylor wasfrom New York because she sounds like she's
from New York. And yeah,she's from New York. And you can
tell because she sound like she fromNew York. Yeah. Man, look,

(03:49):
this is a This is a nicelittle like urban love story between like
a mother and son. And youdon't see that a lot, right,
You don't see stories of mothers.You don't see a story like this,
right, Like we all know storieslike this. Like also, I like,
I don't know who directed this,but I guarantee you it was a

(04:12):
black person, probably a black woman. Because this this movie is a it
feels real, it feels authentic.It feels like something that someone okay,
well, it feels like something thatsomeone would lived experience, or someone who
is very close to a lived experienceI would have, Like acting is is

(04:40):
stellar. I haven't seen Tiana Taylorin literally anything else. I didn't even
know she could talk, so I'vejust seen pictures of Now you saw.
She wasn't coming to America too,by the way, she was Wesley Snipes's
daughter. I remember. I tryto block a lot of that out of

(05:01):
Yeah, now you should. Youshould. It's not a good movie.
But she she she looks great init. But it's not a good movie.
It's not her phone though, Butyeah, man, like this is
a this is I like, Ilike Ones as a character, like she's
incredibly flawed, but like, atthe same time, the movie shows that,
like she is a good person andit and the movie doesn't forget like

(05:28):
oh yeah, and by the way, like you see the struggle, you
see how hard it is to bea black woman in the nineties and in
the two thousands, Like let's notforget all the rampant crime, and let's
not forget all the weird gentrification,like all the ship with the landlord and
and and all that, like allthat stuff is in the background while she's

(05:51):
trying to raise this boy. Andit's just a really good movie. Man,
I really, I really liked it. So I would recommend you go
see it. Get a get apeacock accountant. Support this movie. It's
really good, Okay, Tiara,Yeah, echoing a lot of what both

(06:14):
of y'all said, I really lovethis. It's been a while since I
felt immersed in a movie where Ifelt like I was like part part of
it. I think it's just Tiana'sTaylor's first lead role, and I thought
she did an awesome job. Idid the same thing to Mike Guy.
I had to look her up tosee if she was from New York because
I was like, Wow, doesshe's she's really pulling this off. I
was like, is she from thearea? And she's from Harlem as well,

(06:39):
so it felt like she was probablytapping into, if not her own
lived experiences, then probably what she'sseen happened around her. I was not
expecting the twist at the end,and I wasn't expecting the reaction to the
twist at the very rate of themovie, because there was a part where

(07:01):
I was just like, I don'tknow if you're if you're a Terry,
and if you learn a thing thatyou learn, how do you where do
you go from there? With withsomeone who's your mother. I thought,
I thought the development of I Knowswas done well as wealth. So seeing

(07:23):
her being like this fiery person thatis kind of fighting everyone at like on
like a whim, and then seeingher kind of I don't know if I
would say, mellow out, butat least be more selective with some of
her outbursts throughout the throughout the restof the movie, just shows how that

(07:43):
character took to heart that she neededto be a better mother herself. And
then kind of seeing like the dynamicbetween her and Will Catlett, who I
love, by the way, Ithink Will Catli should be in more things.
He's he is, he's really anactor, but like, just there
was a scene here where he's like, you know, you're being too tough

(08:11):
on him, and I'm thinking,like, that's really interesting considering that it
seems like she's the one that's probablymost invested in Terry's future, especially when
Terry gets an opportunity to go toa really good school and and sort of
almost breaks the cycle that his parentswere both in. And then of course,

(08:31):
like gentrification is just like another majortheme in this movie, and it's
very apparent as you see like justa loud construction and a background and the
different scenes, and then hearing RudyGiuliani's a past speech is kind of like,
you know, weaving through the movie. The part with with the landlords,

(08:56):
I was just like nope. Iwas like, Oh, he's gonna
fix what now, or pretend tofix something. I was like, girl,
they about to raise your rent orthey just wanted to try to find
a way to another way to pushyou out. So yeah, that sucked
up. Yeah I can help you. No, no thanks. And even

(09:22):
then I was a little, youknow, surprised about just how how readily
I was just accepting of that helpbe like, oh, really you can
do them Like no, no,don't do it. Don't do it because
this is all the preluded to themtrying to push you out since they're buying
up the buildings around you. Butyeah, just a really great movie.

(09:46):
I agree with Ja Micah. Checkout and it's also not that long.
I think it's maybe about maybe twohours, but it didn't really feel is
it two hours? Ye? Yeah, I really I really enjoyed it.
And again it's been a while sinceI felt like I was in the movie
and also part of the story anddidn't watch it in the background. I

(10:09):
was just really a gross in it. So okay, Terrence, yeah,
I would just be saying exactly whateverybody else said. It's a good movie,
like you like you uh. Assoon as I turned it on,
within like the first five minutes,I just watched it all the way through.
I'm like, okay, this iscool. I sat and watched the
whole thing. Yeah. Sianna Taylor, I haven't seen her in like in

(10:30):
a major acting role. She's reallygood. Like she didn't have to in
this one. She didn't have toreally stretch too much, but what she
had she did she was She wasexcellent with it. The kids, I
know Mica doesn't like children actors,but this kid was really good, Like
six year old was really fucking good. I was surprised it didn't have a
lot to say, but like justhis acting in general, I'm like,

(10:54):
that kid is pretty solid and thenit went to this fourteen year old.
I'm like, just don't look likethis at all. And then he's like,
you said the seventeen year old.I'm like, yeah, the sixth
and the seventeen year old, theylook Yeah, that could easily be like
his elder brother. Well, catlist is good. It's just a good
story. And that that twist atthe end and that scene, yeah,

(11:18):
I was I lost it. Yeah, yeah, I just did not see
that coming at all. Yeah.When when I popped up in that scene
when he was like, yo,what's what is this all about? Yeah,
I was bowling. I'm like,what going on? This is nuts?
Like really was crazy. But no, this is a really good movie.
I enjoyed it a lot. It'snot like a happy go lucky movie,
but like it's a it's definitely amovie worth watching. I think everybody

(11:41):
check it out well. And andyou know, it's interesting because you're right,
it's not a happy go lucky movie, but it's it feels you know,
multiple people here have said it itfeels very real, right it it
like and these are kind of whenwhen I think about like black dramas and
black serious films that I like,these are the type I like where it's

(12:03):
actually showing us with a level ofnuance, right Like like like Tiara said,
you know Iez is this she's acomplicated character, right, Like she's
not you can't easily throw her intoa box and say, Okay, she's
good, bad, whatever, orlike she's too overbearing or stuff like that.

(12:24):
Like, yeah, I guess sheis a little overbearing because she's trying
to protect her black son, Likeshe's trying to stop him from being harassed
by cops during stopping frisk. She'slike trying to figure out what the fuck
that's about. She's trying to protecthim to get him to a better school
because he's a smart kid and he'sin the school that he could get out
of. Like she's constantly doing thesethings, and it's like I can't help

(12:48):
but see other black women. Iknow my mom in Inez, right,
Like, I can't help but seesee that in that. To me is
the is the like the I guessthat is the benefit of living those kind
of experiences. But those are thetype of black films I actually really appreciate
because you're not you're not making astereotype, like I know, feels like

(13:11):
a real black woman, you know, like she does like she's got all
of the she's got all of theeven where she's coming from, she's got
all the ambition to make her son'slife great. She sacrifices her own potential
career, right, she wants tobe a hairdresser, She throws that all
in the back burner to like bea janitor basically, right, or like

(13:31):
clean houses or something like that.She does all that because her goal was
to make short Like her goal inlife was to make sure her son made
It was more important than anything else. And like, I appreciate that about
her. That feels very real.That feels very real to not only the
black experience, but like the blackwoman experience from you know, as an

(13:52):
outside perspective, my own. No, I mean, it was just dope,
and it just it feels like amuch more genuine version of us than
we often see, which is mostlyjust stereotypes and you know, so on
and so forth. And for peoplewho are like, hey, I don't
want to see like a sad movie, It's not really sad, it's just

(14:13):
reality, like and that, Likenow you could say that reality is sad,
but like I'd like, I'd rathersee this and I'm not judging anybody,
but I'd rather see this than sortof happy go lucky nonsense that it's
like, Okay, this doesn't haveany like, it doesn't have any grit
to it. I'd rather watch stufflike this. So yeah, I thought
Tiana Taylor deserves a lot of creditfor this movie. And I look,

(14:37):
it seems like audience really loved itand critics loved it too. So you
know, if you haven't seen it, you really should. This movie's not
trauma porn. No, it's notlike like that's the thing. It's not
trauma porn. And if you areon the fence of it because you think
it's trauma porn, it's not it. I mean it could be a stylized
documentary quite frankly, that's what itfelt. Yeah, this feels like it

(15:03):
feels like like a sequence to thismovie is like Terry being awarded something and
he gives thanks to his mom,right, Like especially you see all these
athletes are like, oh my mom, you know my mom did this,
My mom did that, my momsacrificed this, and that this is the
story of that mom doing that.Yeah, and and it's important. Man,

(15:28):
you don't see movies like this.Like usually it's like, you know,
it's either uh, you know,the black woman is is superwoman,
right, but but still like needsa man to kind of savor at the
end because she's so broken, oryou know, it's or the man is

(15:50):
mad abusive. I mean, thisguy was abusive, you just kind of
you know he was. He was, but he was flawed to he was
one of the most real, likejust regular dudes I've ever seen in a
movie. Yeah. I was actuallynot really surprised by just how like non

(16:15):
stereotypical he was, like because becauseusually when you see a character come up
come in like that, especially acharacter that's playing almost like a stepfather figure
because he's not Terry's dad, there'susually like this portrayal and in some other
films where he would be the guythat's like abusing the sun or like trying

(16:37):
to kick that sun out, andthat's not what happens in this film.
Like, if anything, he reallystarts to lean into that fatherhood type or
that father type of role when theycould have gone a whole other direction.
Yeah, and look not right exactlylike that little god. But I mean,

(17:00):
and that's true, right, Likenot to spoil things, that come
up later. We'll spoil them later. But like there is a there's a
whole aspect that Lucky says, likewhen he's talking to Anez, it's just
the two of them. He's likelike, basically, what the fuck do
two criminals them like know about raisinga kid? Right? And it's interesting

(17:21):
because and we'll talk about the twistsand everything else that happens, but he
quite literally, Terry quite literally savesthe two of them, right, which
is which is actually in a wayhow like I guess good family dynamics are

(17:42):
children generally teach you how to growup, right, they kind of force
you to. And the two ofthem are like scamming and doing dumb shit
when they're young, like going tojail or whatever, and then they start
to raise Terry together and they actuallygrow up as real adults, like and
you watch them over these these courseof these like eleven years, which is

(18:03):
really a fascinating aspect about like theirdynamic. It isn't just like we're raising
this boy to be a good personlike they are, but also at the
same time he's inadvertently raising them,which is dope. But yeah, look,
I love this movie. I thoughtit was very very good. So
let's look, let's jump right intoit. The film opens with uh Inez,

(18:30):
Yeah, she's on Rikers. Yeah, we're not getting right into and
she's just getting out of Rikers andshe's going back to her old neighborhood.
If Peacock would actually work, Icould tell you. And she's going back
to her old neighborhood and basically shewas a hairdresser before she got locked up,

(18:52):
and she's trying to like go backto her old job, and the
I guess, the guy who runsthe salon is like, yeah, nah,
you can't. You can't come backin here. And she's like,
well, what about the money youowe me? And she was like,
you can either pay me or letme have my little job back. He
was like, bet here's the money, get the fuck out of here,

(19:14):
which like money from like a yearago. What's like, no problem,
just go away, because clearly inNez is a bit of a problem.
So she takes that money and soshe's like she basically goes back to the
little neighborhood and she's like seeing herfriends and everything else, and you know,

(19:36):
you know, seeing you know,these kids running around, and she
sees Terry, her son, hangingout and she goes to talk to him
or whatever. He is in fostercare at this point, and she's trying
to talk to him on the streetwhile he's out with his friends, but
he won't speak with her right,Like he's just completely silent. Obviously he
feels abandoned by her, and youknow, she had been gone for whatever

(20:00):
amount of years in Rikers at thispoint, Terry is six years old,
so she she spends a lot ofher time trying to like get back in
his good graces and like talk withhim and like kind of work that relationship
back from basically from zero. Thatends up sort of kind of working when

(20:22):
you realize like Terry's foster care,I guess mother foster and mother is like
seems like kind of an asshole tohim, Like we see her out on
the street kind of treating Terry likeshit. Because the foster care system is
really bad. Like it's really reallybad. And I wish people understood that
when they just sell just put kidsup for adoption super easy, they'll be

(20:47):
fine, but have them, justhave them, just have out of what
have them, have them even ifyou don't want them. Have him,
Yeah, like you adopted any kidsout of foster care. Me, well,
no, you're crazy, Like,yeah, dude, those kids suffer.
Man, that shit's fucking nuts.I don't tell people that shit.

(21:08):
So let me let me talk aboutthis kid actor for a second, because
I have ninety seconds of commercials whilePeacock gets it together ahead. So this
kid, as Terrence alluded to,I'm not the best fan of child actors
because I because they don't have experience, and it requires a director to really

(21:30):
give a damn about the performance thatthey're pulling out from a kid. If
anybody has ever asked a child todo anything, you know they're not gonna
do it the way you want itdone the first time you ask them.
I really gotta coax it out ofhim. And and this kid did a

(21:52):
phenomenal job of being a real kid. Like he's like the way he's talking
back and the way like he's well, well, well don't do with then
right, Well don't go then bye. I was like, I don't want
to go though, Like, yeah, exactly exactly, you don't want to
go. I mean, and mywife, Me and my wife we hugged

(22:14):
each other and start we're gonna makeit. We're gonna we're gonna get through
it. But yeah, man,this so kudos everybody involved. Man,
like this kid, actually, thiskid, much like everyone else in this
movie, feels like a real person. And I'm going to be stressing that
a lot in this movie because,like especially movies like this, sometimes it

(22:40):
gets a little too like overdramatized oryou know, very prominent black directors take
stuff like this and they just youknow, well I load her and all
that shit, right, Like itjust n like that ain't real. These
people feel real, and it's atestament to the writing, the performances,

(23:03):
and direction. And yeah, man, she this woman looks pretty young too.
I think that's probably why it seemsas real as it does, because
this woman av rockwell, she lookslike she's probably in her thirties maybe if
that. Yeah, she looks superduty. Yeah, and this is the
first feature, so we don't shedoesn't have all of that that like that

(23:26):
you know, you know that niggerthat nigga shit like that old like fucking
slave mentality type shit. I'm notsaying, you know, you know what
I'm talking about. This is weird. It just seems real. Well,
and she's she's writing, I meaneven though this takes place in like the

(23:47):
nineties, I guess, yeah,she's still writing a very modern story,
right, like a very modern takeon on black women. You know they
don't Yeah, they're not, They'renot playing. Like there's a whole conversation
that happens on the stoop when shewalks into her apartment later on in the
movie that is like this sort ofquintessential like women's place in a home type

(24:12):
of conversation between two women, Likethey let you know that those things kind
of exist, but Innez doesn't,Like, she doesn't exist in that world,
right, She's she's very different thanthan that, Like her her and
Lucky have a different type of relationshipand stuff like that. So it's interesting
like these these like very modern perspectivesin a movie that clearly takes place in

(24:33):
the past. But again, Ilike the I sort of like messing around
with that kind of stuff is kindof interesting. So after she goes to
see Terry, at one point,Terry gets hurt because he's running away from
his forest care mom and he fallsout of window Michael Eli style and the

(24:59):
right, and he hurts htuff,he hits his head, and so she
goes to see him in a inthe hospital, and she's just like listen,
you know, like how are you? Like, she's she's trying to
trying to kind of just again likework her way back into this relationship.
And then you know, she seeshim a second time at the hospital and

(25:23):
like basically she says like listen,you know, he he doesn't want to
go with he doesn't want to goback to another forest forest care place because
she's like, look, they're gonnamove you because you got basically as you
got hurt at this place, they'regonna move you to a different spot.
And and so he's like, look, I don't want to I don't want
to do that. I don't wantto go with somebody else. And she's

(25:45):
like, how would you feel aboutgoing with me? And he's like,
okay, I mean I guess soundcool. And uh So she kidnaps her
own son out of foster care,which is obviously very illegal, but you
do what you gotta do to protectyour kids, right, I get it.
And so she takes them and thatsort of starts at about thirteen minutes,

(26:08):
that sort of starts. They're kindof journeying together, you know,
it's it's a it's like a weirdcoming of age kind of story, but
like on the run story even thoughNew York's not that big. So they
just leave like Queens, right,They like leave Queens and go to like
the Bronx, Like this is thisfucking like they didn't even go to Jersey,

(26:32):
like we'll never find them. Theycost like, I give up,
it's eight million people here, fuckit. And so so they moved to
this other barrow and and like she'strying to you know, trying to find
a place to stay in everything.And then you start to get like these
moments where you can kind of seeInez's sort of immaturity as a as a

(26:53):
as a as a person or asa mom. Like she's trying to call
somebody on the phone, and Terryit's like trying to interrupt her because he's
sex and that's just what kids knew. Yeah, she drives me crazy,
by the way, this was thescene you're talking about. So, so

(27:15):
he's trying to interrupt and she justflips out on him. She's like,
don't you want to have a placeto day? Like basically, shut the
fuck up. I'm on the phone. Uh look, I couldn't possibly relate
to that. No, definitely not. I quite literally snapped my fingers at
my daughter the other day because wewere in the drive through, which she's

(27:37):
like, but I went and Iwent and I was like, please stop,
like, please stop. You know, I can't hear the lady yelling
out of the clown's mouth as towe're responding to my order while you're talking
as well, please stop. Iwatched this movie yesterday and this exact incident
happened. I was I was facetimingmy parents and because they to see the

(28:00):
you know, the boys, andyou know, we show the youngest one
is getting a lot of FaceTime becauselike he's starting to move and they want
to you're starting to crawl and theywant to see it, right, And
the eldest is just look at this, Look at this, Look at this
truck, Look at this truck.Look And I'm just like, can you
plead and buy? Like the eighthtime, I just I just kind of,

(28:22):
you know, raise my voice abit with my parents on the phone,
and they're laughing at yeah, Ibet they were. They were like,
yeah, yeah, exactly, justlike you hug your wife. They
high fived each other right after theygot off that facetip call. Does your

(28:48):
send you the whole daddy look?And then he just jumps and you're like,
oh right, right, look atthis truck. Yeah, I know
I bought it. I bought thetruck. I know what it looks like.
All right, damn, set down, set down. That's fucking funny.

(29:11):
Look at this truck. Okay,I got it. No it's a
chevallet. What No, it's not. No, it's a chevallet all right,
yo, all right, just shutThere is nothing more nothing that is

(29:33):
more irritating. And we'll also makeyou feel stupid than arguing a fact with
a small child. You're like,yo, no it isn't. Yore like,
Yo, it isn't. I'm smarterthan you. And then you're like,
yo, why are we arguing?I feel like I'm moron right now?
It's fifty Yeah, you're screaming ateach other over dumb facts. Give
the fuck right. It's the stupidestthing that's happened in my day today is

(29:56):
arguing with her a toy truck,a fort to f one fifty which it
was, or Chevrolet I don't know. All right, that's funny. Look
at the receipt, Look at thereceipt. Let's say it. That's it's

(30:17):
funny. I've definitely done that.I'm like, that's not true, and
I'm like, what am I doing? That's a fuck that's it's a dolphin.
They go, shut up, it'snot a shark. So so yeah,
you see that. You see thismoment where Inez pulls it. Mica
yells at her son at the phonebooth, and so she eventually gets her

(30:37):
her friend on the phone. Herfriend agrees like, yeah, you can,
you and your son can come sleephere, and so she does.
They go to sleep at I thinkthat's a aunt Kim's house, and and
like Kim's mom is like, don'tbring her as in here. M no,

(30:57):
thank you. Your friend ain't shitand just right to a face and
yeah, yeah, not that faraway's kind of mean. So they're there,
and you know, Terry stays withKim while Inez is out there trying

(31:18):
to find a job, you know, trying to trying to find an apartment
and everything. And basically Inez callsback in the house and she's like,
look, don't actually before that,you know, Inez is there, and
Kim's mom is like, look likeyou need to you know, what does
she say, like she's called her, she's she said some shit, like

(31:41):
she said some like dirty shit toto Iez. I can't remember what the
exact line it was. It wassomething it was something like, you know,
what are you teaching that boy?And dressed like a whore or something,
dressed like a street walker or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's right, Yeah, showing upbeing what god knows who, you know,
walking around like some kind of streetwalker. And I Nez was like,

(32:02):
what do you call me? Like, holy, I fight your ass,
which is probably not a good ideafor Kim's mom because, like I knows,
is kind of jack, Like Iprobably wouldn't have not trying to come
to fistic cups with Innes No thanks, And so she pushes that old lady
down as you do, and ofcourse Kim is like, uh, yeah,

(32:24):
you gotta leave you. You can'tbe beating up my mom. Yeah,
like this shit's unacceptable. She apologizes, I mean she does the hood
apology. Was I wrong, yes, and but like yeah, I mean
she kind of apologized, but shewasn't like sorry, I mean I shouldn't

(32:45):
have done it. But like atthe same time, your mom was talking
mad shit, so you know,talk shit, get hit. That's what
I'm saying. I was like,what do you want to say? Say?
I'm sorry, That's what I'm wantingat least on my bad goddamn right,
but yes, what you want meto say? She's like, I'm

(33:08):
not a street walker. I meanyou're wearing a street walker's uniform. But
so yeah, So she gets kickedout, but luckily she finds an apartment
and it's still or no, notat actually not at that point. She
goes and stays with somebody else andthey are, you know, she's staying

(33:34):
at this this this older woman's house, and they're basically she's like trying to
show her the way, like listen, you know, you gotta look out
for your son. You gotta dowhatever you gotta do to survive. Like
this shit ain't gonna be uh,she isn't gonna be easy. And Iez
is like actually listening to actually listento this this woman, and it it
kind of teas up the type ofperson in Nets ends up being in a

(33:58):
lot of ways. She talks aboutlosing her family and because she was in
foster care and she had a sisterthat was also in foster care, and
her sister ran away, and soshe never found her, which is really
fucking disturbing and fucked up again.Foster care system is really horrible, especially
for black children. But at thispoint and Nez eventually thankfully finds an apartment.

(34:25):
You know this happened in the pastbecause this apartment was three hundred and
fifty dollars a month, which iscrazy in New York. Yeah, that's
the same apartment in New York,right, exactly, fucking efficiency. Not
you couldn't buy it, you couldn'tget an efficiency, but three fifty in

(34:45):
New York. If you tried that, she would have rats swimming in your
bath to get out. I didn'treally I never realized how. I didn't
realize how small like a New Yorkapartment is. Actually they're really funny because
then it was like it was likea fifth floor walk up and it was

(35:05):
like like, no, you rememberthe palatial ground floor of studio apartment,
Like like their apartment was like thesize of my kitchen and bedroom, like
that's it and their their whole bestapartment. Like I was like, Jesus
Christ, what do you pay alittle bit build? Because all those buildings
were made in nineteen twenty. Yeahthey're shit, Yeah, tr, TR

(35:30):
don't your tr don't your sisters livingin New York? Ah? Yeah one
of them does, ye tiny apartmenther nor nine roommates. No, she
has a one bedroom and she sherich. It's pretty sizable, yeah,
TR. See TR's whole family rich. They got all that, They got

(35:52):
all that Jamaican coffee money. Theywere rich. See. No, I
don't know any of which people.M okay, moderately wealthy. You hang
out with wealthy people? Yeah.See see how see how they do,
see how they change the shut up. I wish I had rich over.
Give me a dollar. She waslike, if I was rich, nice

(36:14):
for you, give me a dollar. Yeah, you ain't gonna make it.
I doubt it now, y'a LikeI have a Micael you know them.
My wife and I have friends whoare a long time New Yorkers and
they they are well to do andthey have a very nice like they had

(36:36):
a they had a fine apartment,not great, but they had a fine
apartment. They had to wait untilthe lady next door died and then bought
her apartment and then basically knocked thewall down to make a bigger, like
reasonable size apartment, like, andit's a really nice apartment, but it
was insane, Like they I don'teven want to tell you the amount of

(36:57):
money they spent on the renovations becauseit's it's an absolutely insane number. But
I'm like, no, just buya house anywhere else in the world,
anywhere anywhere. Let's go to Jerseyfor fuck's sake. Nope, she's going
across the fucking water. It wasnot that far. Like, I'm not
really, no, this is absolutelycrazy. But yeah, so they got

(37:20):
again. Much like the gas pricesin the original die Hard movie, three
hundred and fifty dollars a month isridiculous to think about. So so her,
Eynez and Terry they got this apartment. Things are going pretty good.
She leaves him for one day togo to work because she can't put him
in school because she stole him fromthe foster care system. So until she

(37:45):
gets some papers for him, fakepapers, she can't really put him back
in in school or anything. Sohe's just sitting at home eating cereal and
watching TV and I guess listening thetapes. Yeah, that's not good for
kids. Like the fact that thiskid didn't destroy this house or run away

(38:07):
is amazing, but but that's good. We do get a first inkling of
of Terry being interested in music ashe's watching TV show with all the music
done by Quincy Jones, which becomesimportant later on in the film. There

(38:28):
is a I Nez comes home andlike realizes, oh, like she can't
she can't leave him like this,Like he's not capable of this. But
again, this is that's her levelof maturity, right, Like she just
she didn't know she There's a reallysweet scene of her and Terry playing baseball
outside and it's like a really reallygood bonding moment. Yeah, it's just

(38:54):
it's just really kind of a beautiful, beautiful moment of like Terry and his
you know, Terry and Inez actuallybeing you know, mother and son,
enjoying each other's company, having fun, him really being a kid, sort
of him blossoming too, right becausehe was super quiet for a while too.
And yeah, that's a good scene. Then you see them like kind

(39:19):
of painting the apartment together, kindof making their making their own home right,
and and again these are these arebonding moments. Uh. Then we
find out that her Inez's boyfriend orold boyfriend, Lucky is going to be
moving into the apartment. But beforeyou before you continue, there's that there's
a scene when he's playing a videogame. This really pissed me off.

(39:43):
He was holding a GameCube controller.This is nineteen ninety six. Gamesque came
out in two thousand and two.I was like, that control was a
wrong controller. Someone didn't do theirfu homework, Like it was my six.
It would have been a PlayStation onecontroller. It probably couldn't afford that,
so he probably would have still beenplaying like a second chances if he

(40:06):
had a game since the middle.That's like it really irritated me. I'm
like, what the event? Thismovie was so good? How can they
make this error? They almost tookaway one star. I'm surprised you didn't
notice it? Did you not notice? H No, I didn't notice it.

(40:28):
I didn't notice. I was noticingit now and and yeah, it
is kind of annoying. Ninety ninetyseven the game cube was was seven years
old. Stop it. But yeah, but it should have been four controller
beller. But maybe look, maybethey choose the Nintendo sixty four because it's

(40:50):
the most hideous control that's ever beenmade. How about that? There you
go, that's it. Piece ofshit. That's when my brain stopped learning
how to play video games. Iwas like, I don't understand how to
hold this, and I gave up. I was right, it was just
right then. So then Lucky isgonna move in, and you know,

(41:12):
like we had talked about, thisis the moment. I was like,
oh shit, here we go.Here you come this nigga nigga sitting in
the couch. He's like, whothe fuck is this nigga? How long
you're gonna be here? Like Ijust nigga trying to kick me out already.
I'm like, God damn it.Yeah, I thought this was gonna
go a different way now, tryou're you're kind of smiling. What were

(41:32):
your thoughts on this scene? Ithought it was about to be like some
as Terrence ported out earlier, somebaby boy mess where I was. I
was like, oh my god,is he gonna like say something rude to
uh we call him Darrell now orwe're called Darrel Terry Darrell. And then

(41:53):
I was like, no, it'sWill Catletts. He's gonna play a villain
like he has another thing. ButI thought it was a I thought it
was a pretty interesting scene because Ithought, like you said you said earlier,
Jay like kind of start to seeTerry kind of blossom a little bit.
And this is I feel like anexample of him being like in my

(42:15):
but my am I still replaceable toyou, because I felt like that's how
he was feeling, Like that's howTerry was feeling. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I could see that.Like, you know, that is like
a really weird thing of I mean, husbands or boyfriends feeling like they they're
being replaced by children. And Isuppose children also feel that way too,

(42:39):
which is kind of an interesting perspectivebecause there's only so much attention to go
around, right, so like youyou do, you know, you do
take your attention off one person togive it to another person, Like that
is a that is a balance,right, I mean, so it's kind
of interesting that Terry feels that way. It makes sense because he has been

(43:02):
abandoned, so why would the womanwho abandoned him earlier not do it again?
And he's you know, he's sortof dealt with abandonment his whole life,
right, like being moved around infoster care and stuff like that,
So it does in fact make sense, and there is like a weird because
I thought at first that is definitelythe route they were going with of like

(43:25):
just kind of have at least havingLucky just kind of be a shit head
to him. But then like there'sa scene where the like the basketball scene
where they're they're playing basketball in thehouse, and I was like, oh,
okay, like he don't really likeis he gonna do some dirty shit
to Terry? Like the stereotype isso prevalent in media that we're all expecting

(43:45):
it to happen, which which isa really sad fact that you don't just
see a black man of whatever stationcome in and just be a father Like
that's that used to be much moreprevalent in movies, but in our lifetime
has not been in the stereotype asalways, this dude comes in, he's

(44:06):
a real piece of shit to thekid, or he's a piece of shit
to the mom or both. Right, you know, like fuck that kid,
you know, I just wanted you, Like he does say that,
like I didn't sign up to youknow, to be with this kid.
I just wanted to be with you. But again he matures as well,
and it's like, yeah, I'mthe father figure. Like then I gotta

(44:29):
like I gotta pull up and Igotta do what I'm supposed to do.
And I appreciate it about how thecharacters written like that. He never he
never makes Terry feel less than atall. Never, No, at no
point after this, even when lateron when they do become like a real
unit, he's like, no,you're you're mine. And like I said,

(44:52):
Jay, like we're so conditioned tokind of see the opposite happen,
even in films made by other blackdirectors. And and I really love that
this director chose to not go thatroute because in a way, it still
feels it still feels like still feelsreal to me, like these are real

(45:12):
characters. Yeah, I mean it'sthat's a really sad statement on black films,
that that's how we see, that'show black men are are often portrayed
when it comes to children. Imean, to be fair, Uh,
it's coming from somewhere. Yeah,you know, I know, Yeah it

(45:34):
happens, and and like, butlike that's not all we are exactly,
that's in media, that's all theyshow us as, and that's not all
we are. Right. He again, he has his flaws, Like even
there's a scene coming up next whenhe's he's when my Neez tells tells him
to take him with him to getsome food, and he tells them walk
on the other side of the streetfor protecting. It's like, it's for

(45:55):
your protection. I'm like, Okay, now I'm seeing that he actually gives
a funk about this kid. Itthat was like the the beginnings of me
actually saying, oh, he reallydoes care about this kid, because the
scene of prior to that, hewas looking at the other check across the
street while he was on his bike. But yeah, it's it's yeah,
that's what we always see. Andlike, I just I was shocked when
that wasn't what you actually turned outto be, honestly, and even like

(46:20):
because and even with that scene,like when she was like, yeah,
take Terry with you, I wasstill waiting for like the other shooter drop.
Oh my god, Okay, he'sgoing to take Terry with him,
and then he's not going to bewatching him, and then this whole thing
is going to their faces, thekids, They're going to find out this
kid was kidnapped, and I'm like, oh my god, he's a piece
He's a piece of shit, stepfather, And no, it just was like

(46:44):
fucking worse, dude, like allof us crazy. It's like y'all were
watching it with me, and y'allit's like, y'all, I mean,
you're quoting my life, you're quotinghe fuck up? He gonna fuck up?
I knowing no, but that's whatit felt like. But I mean,
you're you're one hundred percent right,miket. It doesn't come from nowhere,

(47:04):
right, So like that's a that'sa sad state of black men with
children. But to Terence's point,that is all the media ever shows.
And I have to give the directorone hundred percent credit for being like for
teeing that up and be like psychactually he's a he's a good father,

(47:25):
like because look, the reality islike percentage wise, like black men are
not out of the homes of theirchildren as much as that's as the media
and I don't mean like television.I'm talking about like the news portrays like
that statistic is not as crazy aspeople think it is, Like it's high,

(47:45):
but like black fathers who are notincarcerating stuff like that aren't just like
who are excuse me, who arelike with the mother, they're not just
you know, they're just not takingcare of their kids. That's actually not
true. But again those things areare pushing a different a very different way.
Like my skepticism of this character wenton until Terry was like a sixth

(48:08):
was in like it was like sixteenyears old, talking about going to that
new school or going to college orsomething like that. Like even then I
was like, oh God, ishe going to give him bad advice?
He's gonna be like, no,you'll need to google because you don't want
to be controlled. And I'm like, oh God when that when that line
came up, I was like,like I didn't go and then and then

(48:31):
that conversation happened and I was justlike, oh, okay, well that's
that's not so bad. Reasonable advice. Carry on. I came like my
mind having when she was super young, right, so my biological father where
he wasn't there, but like shemet my father when she was like seventeen

(48:52):
eighteen years old, and then theyhad another kid, like my brother's three
years younger than I. But henever saw me as as like some other
kids. He saw me as hisson. So that's all I've known.
That's all I ever knew when Iwas growing up, Like he took respect,
Like that's insane. I think itwasn't when I mean twenty years old

(49:13):
yet. But he took responsibility forme as well as my my brother and
my mom super young. So that'swhat I grew up. No, that's
the only thing I know. Hewasn't my biological father, but yeah,
he just fucking raised me with withmy mom. And it's like, so
that's all I know. Yeah,when it comes to like raising a black
man, raising their their family,I think it was crazy. I don't

(49:37):
know if I could have done.No, there's not a lot of this
crazy. But but there's not alot of people built like that. There
really is, just not. Weconsidered their circumstances right, because Lucky had
just gotten out of He's got outa lot. He just got out of
prison and set up I mean,and it's clearly they had some real issues

(50:00):
to work with. I mean,she alluded that she went to Joe for
him a couple of times, sothey had some stuff to work out.
And here he is stepping up andaccepting this little boy as his own.
Yeah, it's it's yeah. Younever see this right like it you don't.
This is kind of unique in inin media, like I'm sure it

(50:22):
happens all it's time in real life, but in media you don't see this
ship ever, which was just shockerto all four of us. I cannot
believe it. Yeah, I meanit, it is. It is just
really really fascinating that that circumstances surroundsthat character, like this sort of like

(50:44):
real life way that we see blackmen, the real life way black men
are portrayed in media. Then themovie taking that and sort of playing with
it on purpose to kind of belike maybe now we're gonna go the other
way. Like that's that's a cleverthat's a clever design by the by the
writer director. I think she wroteand directed this as well. So the

(51:07):
kudos to her for for that kindof work. That's dope. So yeah,
like like we're saying, you've gotyou've got all these moments where you
know, Lucky is sort of beingasked to be this this father figure,
right and you know, and atone point earlier in the movie, Terry,

(51:29):
Terry and I Naz are talking andTerry's like, where's my dad and
and She's like he's gone. ButI have another person in mine. Basically,
I have another guy who I thinkcould be a good father to you,
right, And that's that was clearlyLucky. And at the end of

(51:50):
the day, yeah, she wasright. He wasn't a good choice to
be a father, like for forall of the things that he lacks,
right, he wasn't. He wasfar from a perfect character, definitely,
but at the end of the day, he was a good dude, especially
when he came to raising a sun. It was quite good at it.
And look, being there is isa lot of it, you know,

(52:13):
like just being there is a lotof it. I think people people underappreciate
that, like just being there andbeing like what should I do? Let's
talk about it, like that's alot of just being a dad, like
you know, and niggas are justlike I'm out, don't do that,
Like, come on, man,don't do that. So from there,

(52:36):
you know, he does. Luckydoes admit that he just wanted her and
he hadn't signed up for this tobe a dad, but but he does
anyway, So then you know,you see that you see this scene where
Inez and and Lucky get married,and look, man, they're out there,

(53:01):
you know, they outside of theirapartment. They're happy, right,
Like these are broke folks. Butthey you know, they've got they got
each other, right, Like it'sa weird thing, and I like,
I know it's more common than peoplepretend it is. But like people got
to stop thinking that money is moneyis the most important thing in a relationship.

(53:22):
You know, Like these are twobroke ass niggas who have found in
love with each other, right,Like they just like they're not having a
fancy wedding. You know, they'reoutside of their house, they went to
the courthouse clearly, Like they're nothaving a big party or anything. It's
just two regular ass people. You'rejust happy. Yeah, Like that's you
know, that's way more important thantrying to stunt for fucking Instagram and ship.
I see that shit all the time. It's crazy, Like relax,

(53:45):
y'all niggas are broke together. It'sokay, you just broke together. It
is what it is better than beingbroke apart. And so they're happy or
whatever, and Lucky takes a momentI thought was really good to just be
like, look, me and yourmother, like we're together now, Like

(54:07):
so you know we're a family.Like I'm gonna take care of you.
I'm gonna take care of her likeit is what it is. He was
giving all some look, he wasgiving all some Delroy Lindo vibes. Yeah,
yo, like he really was.It's very I guess it's an indictment
on me. Yo. I'm likethis nigga lying yo, he's lying.

(54:29):
It was so sad yo. Howsad is? Basically did you say,
did you think he gave Terry thechain? And like the very next thing
when he gave him the chain,I kind of was like, all right,
well maybe he's not lying. Butwhen in that moment where he's just
like, look at me, I'mgonna family now now, Like I don't

(54:52):
trust this nigga yo, but technicallynot blood though, like tech and that
look, I feel bad because Luckywas a good dude. Man. It's
kind of fucked up. Yeah,it really is. Look what media has
done to us. Show like familyand if when when all of a sudden

(55:15):
done, Like family is who youchoose, right, that's absolutely right.
Like some people like you don't haveto be blood to be family, Like
family is who you choose to bewith. Yeah, that's the most important
thing. Sometimes your fami family isway better to you. It's a lot
better, Like that. Yeah,ask the fucking LGBT community for that,
because like that, your real familywill just throw you out on a fucking

(55:37):
street. Yeah, disappointed? Isthis? Is this a whole fast and
furious No, no, no,no, don't don't you dare bring up
that god awful movie. Don't dothat while we're talking about this beautiful work
of art. Get out of it. I didn't even heard. Also,

(56:00):
it's a work of art with theblack people in it. Jesus when movies.
I missed it because my internet.No, I don't don't. You
ain't miss nothing. You ain't missI ain't even invoking that. I'm not
even invoking that god awful movie,just being being rude. There's been a

(56:22):
rude ass person for no reason none, But it was right there, right
there head. Yeah, and youdidn't have to because you look, I
knew about to go on a hiatusfor a little bit. You gotta get
all you Yeah, I get yourshi off. I got it. You
know what I understand. Yeah,look, it's but it just yeah,

(56:45):
look, I gotta tell you evenI agree with my kid, Like even
then, I was like, butyeah, when you give somebody cha,
I was like, oh he gavehim a Rockefeller chain like he probably.
He was like, don't worry aboutit. You're crazy for this one,
Terry. Yeah, it's like itis sad, yo, it's a real
sad indictment on us yo, asjust media consumers. So then we we

(57:09):
jump, we jump up in ageand Terry is now thirteen. He he
looks nothing like he did before.But he's still with his friend p who
we haven't talked about, but he'sjust like his is his buddy from around
the way type of shit. AndTerry he gets called into he gets called

(57:32):
into school with his mom and they'relike, listen, uh, your son
is way too goddamn smart to behere, so we need to have him
tested so he can go to abetter school. And the woman at the
at the school, the white womanin school right before he got stopped inst

(57:53):
that yeah, right right right before, right after, right before, right
before right so he the white teacherslike, well, we don't get She
was like, I was surprised tosee you as you know, you were
Terry's mom. We don't get alot of students who are so articulate.
I was like one like like thankyou that, thank you for saying my

(58:17):
son is very smart. You don'tmake me come across his desk and knock
your ass out. Look that that'slook shout out to Inez, because she
was way nicer than I would havebeen in that situation. Like, excuse
me, that's how you knew thatthere was growth because ye now I should
have choked their ass out right there? Think you talking to right, Like,

(58:38):
well, we gotta give the schoolpolice to escort this woman out.
Yeah, a couple of years ago, she knocked the old lady down,
like she didn't give her own house. Yeah, so like that was kind
of a wild statement. I waslike, relax, just fucking relax your
language. But yeah, she's like, listen, I brought in this this

(59:00):
other lady from this school, thisblack woman who's gonna fuck your life up
later for being tough. Goddamn nosey. She's she's from this like fancy,
uh sort of magnet school type ofthing. And we want to test Terry

(59:20):
because we think that he is smartenough to get out of this school and
go to this other fancy school.And so Terry doesn't want to do it
because he is a reluctant child.And like Mike I said earlier, if
you try to ask you a childto do anything, they don't want to
do it, even when it's intheir best fucking interest. And so he
doesn't want to take the test.Why because he don't like that's his answer,

(59:45):
because I don't what grade are youin when you're thirteen years like six
uh no, you're like eighth grade, like trying to yeah, fourteen year,
fourteen year. We're talking about howthey how they did want to start
freshman without any girl. All right, one one, y'all not y'all not

(01:00:07):
getting girls. Relax, Relax atleast I wasn't. And so I'm just
gonna extrapolate that out to everybody else. So yeah, he's he doesn't want
to do it, and so she'slike, no, you're you're gonna do
it, like like, just justtake the test, like I know.

(01:00:30):
It's tried to be slick. She'slike, just take the test to see
if you pass. You'll have togo, but just take the test to
see if you pass. And ofcourse he like he passes and he gets
it. She's like, yeah,you going, nigga, like get the
fuck out of here, like youjust to see if I could do it.
I did it. I don't wantto go. Like all right,
well that's what I mean, Like, you can either go to that school
or you can find another place tolive. I was like, god,

(01:00:51):
damn, that's a hell of anultimatum. Like that's it. He was
like, well, I don't knowhow to cook, so I guess I'm
going and look, you know,to his to his credit, he doesn't,
He doesn't know what he wants todo, and he talks to well,
he eventually talks Lucky about it,but well we'll get there. Him

(01:01:13):
and p are at some some littlerestaurant or whatever that that they go to,
and he tries to talk to thegirl who works there. She hates
this nigga. She hates She hateshim and his friends. I get why
she don't like pee because he yelledand called her good night. Yeah,
he called her midnight. I waslike, bro, don't do it.

(01:01:36):
The fuck that ship is unacceptable,man, Like, come on, colis
in there too, for good measures? Yeah, for good for good measure.
I mean even I mean, it'sreally funny because even uh Terry lies
to his mother. Later on,he was like, I only like,
you know, I like Spanish girls, Like, yeah, boy, stop
lying. But a woman like stufflike that was like especially true hearing to

(01:02:06):
me because I'm like, yeah,I've been that girl that's been called or
been made fun of for her darkskinned by other black boys. And then
hearing black boys be like, yeah, you know what, you know like
Spanish girls, I'm like, Ihonestly don't think he was probably lie in
that point. I'm pretty sure upuntil he saw what's what was her name,

(01:02:28):
Simo, until you saw that girl, he probably was feeding into only
liking hispanic, right. Yeah,it's that's a that's a sad truth.
I just never understood it, LikeI just I don't. I don't get

(01:02:50):
it, Like there's fine women everywhere. I don't give a fuck what your
complexion is. It seems so weirdto me, Like it just does.
I guess I'm not that picky mall right, Like I'm the I'm I'm
a fan of the Wu Tang icecream song, like whatever flavor, dude,
I don't give a shit fondness everywhere, So yeah, she don't really

(01:03:15):
fuck with them. I don't likevanilla, all right, that's fair.
I'm not a huge It could bea bit boring, it could be a
bit boring. I'll give you thatare boring. I mean, not that
it has anything to do with uh, to do with anything how things turned

(01:03:37):
out, but butter pecan is,in fact my favorite ice cream, so
I guess it did kind of workon it as it did. Yeah we
know, uh, but so youknow, I knows is talking to you.

(01:04:00):
It's lucky. And she's like,listen, he has a chance to
go to this better school. Ineed you like him, won't listen to
me, you know, be afather and talk to this dude. And
he's like, look, maybe ifyou weren't so like overbearing like and you
know, and you know, gettingall loud and shit, maybe he would

(01:04:21):
hear you. And she got pissed, rightfully so because she was like,
yeah, you used to like whenI used to get a little spicy like
back in the day, But nownow you're telling me to quiet down,
Like nah, fuck that that's fair, yo. If that's what you liked
about somebody, you can't I can'task him to turn it down now,
like you knew who she was.Y'all been together for a long time at

(01:04:43):
this point, like, knock thatshit all at least seven years at this
point. It's six he's thirteen,fourteen years. Yeah, like sixty seven
years and and right, and they'vebeen together before Terry, so so who
knows how long that was. Soyeah, he gets he gets pissed,
and like she pushes his ass intoan oven. She was like, no,

(01:05:06):
fuck you, yo, like likeyou know, be there for me,
like you know, stand up andbe you know, be a father
to this boy, like don't tellme, but don't tell me some bullshit
about like don't tell me some bullshitthat She's not gonna talk to him because
she's she's so afraid because she foundout that he got stopped by the cops
were stopping frist. She's so afraidsomething's gonna happen to him. She says,

(01:05:30):
something's gonna happen. I just knowit. And so she's so terrified
that something's gonna happen to her sonat this school or in this neighborhood.
She was trying to like get himout of that situation, get him into
a better situation. And so shegets pissed when when Lucky is not as
enthusiastic about getting their son to abetter place in life because he says something
like well it's bound like basically likeit's bound to happen some day anyway,

(01:05:55):
basically like him getting shot by thecops or him getting you know, in
trouble bull or whatever, ended upin jail, and that's when she shoved
him into the oven. Yeah,he was like, he was like,
well, he don't have an ID. Like Yo, what the fuck?
Yo? Like he don't he shouldn'tneed an ID, right, like
you should This ain't this ain't fuckingthis ain't World War two Germany? Like

(01:06:23):
right, get out of here,man, Yeah, he's at this point.
Yeah he's thirteen, but you knowwhat, But you know what though,
but you know what, like I'mthinking about someone who would say something
like that right now, and hemay or may not be related to me
paternally. So it's it's like likethat's something that would come out of someone's

(01:06:49):
mouth of a certain age. Yeah, and uh again, these characters,
these characters are real characters, man, Like, these characters are real character.
Oh you just need I D.Like that's really not the fucking point
of dad, Well what were youdressed like that? Like alright, alright,

(01:07:13):
that's not the point. Next time, don't have a hoodie on?
Like all right, dad, whowere you with cos I know Jay hasn't
remember for like for like speeding,but not no, for just general blackness,
for being a nigga. Good foryou? No, I don't go

(01:07:34):
no where. I don't go nowhere? What the walking down the street?
You were going somewhere? Where wereyou going? Why were you going?
Where was your I D? Wherewas your I D? My wallet?
I had, I had it,I had an idea, but like it

(01:07:55):
was my wallet that was sucked up. It's not a good feeling. The
description black black wearing a jacket?Where I get jacket? Nigget nigga's December?
What the fuck? It's like betweenfive nine and six two or something?
I'm like, are you fucking kiddingme? So every black person you've

(01:08:16):
ever met, so like, thisis a joke to you niggas, Right,
okay between five nine and six two? All right? Yo? Like
knocking off anywhere? But yo,a whole half a foot difference, Yo,
Like, come on, man,Like you can't get somebody's height with
it three inches, He's gotta givethem stopped a few times by the cops

(01:08:38):
just for that's It's crazy, Tiara, Have you ever like is that as
prevalent for New Black women deal withthat this prevalently as black men do.
I've only been a staffed for likespeeding multiple times, So Mike is basically
a black woman, got it whenit comes to copics experience. Yeah,

(01:09:01):
no, Look, you're doing betterthan nothing, Like I'm no like when
I say good for you, I'mI'm being kind. No, that's it's
not a good feeling. You know, it's not a good But at the
same time, like, good foryou that you've never been stopped by the
cops for fucking nothing, because it'snot a good Yeah, fucking sucks.
Yep, it does. It's notit's it's it's not fun. What are
you doing? What what are youtalking about? I stopped one time walking

(01:09:26):
with my cousin. I was walkinghome with my cousin. I was literally
like maybe five hundred feet away frommy house walking home from the store,
and they stopped me, like whatare y'all going? Like, nig I'm
going home. This is my cousin. You got idea on you? Are
you fucking like? I can seemy house, it's right there. Yeah,
it's right there. God damn,look like look, don't point at

(01:09:47):
it. Nigga will come rate it. Like, all right, relax,
cops are not They're not good peopleyet, they're just not. Don't point
at it. Your fingers look likea gun. Yeah right, exactly,
Like that was like two thousand oh, two thousand and two thousand and two.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, theywere shoot nigga's like target practice back

(01:10:08):
then. No thanks, not thatit's really stopped today. So we we
do get us seen a good father'sson seen where you know, Lucky who
has not been around for a coupleof days or weeks. Maybe it's out
in the park playing basketball and Terryseason and they have a they have a

(01:10:33):
conversation and he's like, he's like, listen, I would tell you how
I met your ever tell you howI met your mom. And apparently like
she used to work in a coffeeshop, which is weird. I didn't
know they had like coffee shops backthen. And he's like, I just

(01:10:53):
told her, you know, shewas the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen
him, and uh, and that'syou know, that's how I worked out.
Of course, Terry tries that laterand it goes beautiful or whatever,
you know, whatever'll stop calling here. You don't talk to me for the

(01:11:15):
rest of the day, get awayfrom me. Yeah. I really like
this scene a lot, the sceneon the basketball court. Yeah, but
this was the scene when I'm like, oh, this nigga is for real.
At this point, I'm like,okay, yeah, he said,
I look at it right. That'sI was like, almost stay it up
a little bit. You getting yougot me? Count on? I can

(01:11:41):
count on two fingers how often myfather said he loves me? Yeah?
Really? Maybe I got literally wow, really, maybe me too. That
as one or two times. Iremember two thousand and six. Maybe you
got the dates, that's remember theye like June fourteenth, it was a

(01:12:03):
rainy day. It was like anAugust of two thousand. I'm not lying.
I was at my grandmother's house.I was helping renovate her house because
it was going through it was itwas going through a lot like this is
when she had a heart attack.And I was at they're kind of helping
out and me and in the Mexicancrew, because Mexican we helped. We

(01:12:29):
helped renovate the house. And hecame out. It was in New York,
and he drove back. He droveup from New York and he saw
all the work we put in andit looked really good. It was dope,
and yeah, he grabbed me,hugged me and said I love you.
That was two thousand and six.I remember that, and I think
one other time maybe a few yearsprobably to that. That's two times,
did I remember? Wow? Yeah, Fathers don't say that too much,

(01:12:51):
especially of a certain they don't.I mean, look, look I'm saying
that. I'm look, I'm sayingwow because that that's crazy, like how
infrequent it is. But how aboutthis my real dad zero times zero,
like I than I can remember.So it's you know, it's I mean

(01:13:13):
my stepdad probably a number of times, like you know, but again that
age like if they said it,like they might not have said that,
they may not have said pause,but like that ship was in their brain,
like I guarantee you it was Ilove you. I mean pause,
but like you know, relax,which is sad. You know, like
that should have said and you shouldyou should be able to say it to

(01:13:35):
your kids. I tell my daughterall the time like and look that's I'll
I'll happily admit. That's like insociety that's seen as easier for like you
to tell like a father to tellhis daughter that, Like, so I'm
not gonna say that's a one toone, but yeah, a lot of
a lot of dudes don't say thatship. I'm no bro, Like you

(01:13:55):
don't even say it to you Youdon't even say it to your friends,
like but you don't say like blackmen don't even say it to their friends,
like we don't. No, no, no, you know when you
say it to your friends, likeyour male friends, you say it on
the deathbed, you'd be like,yeah, you know, I love you
dog or whatever. But say thisshy ye at Michael's wedding, Yah,

(01:14:25):
say no, fuck that nigga.Yo, he get out of here,
yo yo, tell his wife tosay I love you. Yo. You're
not laying down with him that night, knocking off, knocking off. You
know what he did? He uhthe best man speech. He quoted a
Captain America movie. That's that Idid. I did, Like that's it
just like that's it to the endof the line. Yes, exactly,

(01:14:46):
You're welcome, nigga, Like that'sthe most manly shit that that. Look,
I've got it, I got it, he got say it right.
Look, it's the classic guy thing, you know what I mean? In
the galler, I say that short. Some guys are we're so pathetic,
it's so ridiculous. Not even whenwhen the when the baby's got to coming

(01:15:11):
nothing to graduations, like congratulations,that's how it would be. I'm just
like, oh shit, good goodsaid that. Terris literally said that.
When the second one was born,he said, oh yeah, I said,
I mean, me and my brotherare three years apart. Good luck,

(01:15:33):
nigga luck wow wow. I lovethem. I know, I know.
Look it's it is a luxury.It is a luxury that you guys
have in societies. Is that youcan do that? Look, I mean,
I look, I gotta tell yousome people, actually some people I

(01:15:54):
do tell them. I hate them. I may like them, but I
hate them. Well most people.I told them. See see see look
look look look look at look athow it's hard. Look at sometimes it's
it's hard to get all like mushywith folks. Yea, I'm just like
you're you're a fucking idiot. Ihate you. When I'll talk to you

(01:16:15):
tomorrow, right like that. That'show we express ourselves through through just unbelievably
mean spirited antics. But like,yeah, it's like this, my brother
and I like when we when likewhen we get together and like right before
we leave. It's only been maybefour years that we say we love each
other before we like, you know, we're thirty, I'm forty two years

(01:16:39):
old. These thirty eight's your brotheryears ago when we really started saying to
each other that's insane, but itmeans that is it's it's just how we
were raised. My mother. Don'teven be saying that shit, but that's
how she was raised. That's howshe was raised. She was raised like

(01:17:00):
it done. Yeah, she wasraised. She was raised by a single
one legged Mother's funny. You can'tsay like, you can't say that,
say that's not funny, that's fuckedup. It's kind of funny. Would
you say, would you say itlike that? But she was raised by
a single mother. She had oneleg. That's crazy. Yeo, I

(01:17:23):
got a wild family. Jay's crying, that's a wild line. Sh like
like so she had to get likeand she was sorry, I'm sorry,

(01:17:44):
it's fucking funny, oh shun.She's thirty two. So she raised two
daughters by herself. She was handicapped. That's yo, that's crazy. That's
amazing. I don't it is amazing. But like that's why I don't hear
it. That's why I never heardit, because like she was like,
yo, I gotta get shit done. I don't give a fuck what you

(01:18:05):
do. Get shit done. Yeah, it was really never time. There
was no time for our love.Yeah, like you like. Look,
I mean I think a lot ofit has to do with we are as
people, right, as black folks, we are much more like we have
been at least it's been socialized tous. We are much more demonstrable in

(01:18:30):
our love for each other through actionversus just through speech, right, like
your grandmother and your mom with it, like get get shited done, Like
get shit done for your family,get you know, raise your kids,
you know, get them food,you know, get him a place to
eat, put them in a safespot. That is that is the love.

(01:18:50):
So like they don't have to sayit to you, like you're looking
for love. It's all around you, right, like you were in a
safe spot, you got food onyou know, you got food and you
that type of stuff. Look,but I do think it is important and
like every generation owes it to itselfto do better than the last. Right,
and we are the we are kindof the first generation that has easier

(01:19:13):
access to like therapy and shit likethat, and it is something that we
should do for our kids, right, and do for the for the younger
generation. Just you don't, eveneven if you don't have kids, like,
tell people that you love them whoyou do, right, don't be
like tr and be all fucked upto them. That's terrible. Don't listen
to No, this person deserves it. Okay, it's yeah, that's probably
your cousin. I hear you,I hear you. No, she's fine,

(01:19:35):
she's cool, she knows it.She knows how much I lover.
See she won't say she'll say itto her either. See, she knows
how much. See how you do. If you say the person already know,
that means you'll never say that shit, you'll never says it's a relatively
new thing for me to show likereal affiction. Yeah, that's what.
But that's what I'm saying. That'sfor this whole generation. It's like that.

(01:19:59):
But actually, you maybe think ofsomething I wanted to bring up,
which is that Terry would have beenlike your guy's age right around that around
that time. Now he was hewould have been a little bit young enough.
He was six, you would beyour age. Yeah, it would
be your oh six, ninety sixyeah, or ninety four yeah yeah really

(01:20:24):
so yeah, he would be liketwo three, so he wouldn't be in
this thirty Yeah. Now what waswhat terrible thing you're gonna say about a
generation? Nah? Go ahead andfinish the statement. He would have been
part of yall as nigga generation.Nah, your son yours. But I
was gonna say, like, Ithink it's interesting just to see how how

(01:20:45):
relatively recent a lot of the thingsthat we're that we have access to.
You know. It kind of isso like you see with Lucky and I
knows like how they're trying to liketo break the cycle that black people have
been in, not to any partof their own, but like just systematically.
And then Terry's like the first personto really get some real opportunity to

(01:21:10):
make something of themselves. And I'mlike this, dude, four yes,
And I'm like, that's what youthink about in that context, You're just
like, well, fuck, thisis it's a little depressing. Well well,
I mean in that to your pointwhen people say, oh, why

(01:21:30):
haven't black people made it? Likethis kid is the first kid to go
to college in this family, andit's in the two thousand's, right,
Like, that's not as that isnot nearly as common across wide America as
it is across Black America, rightLike, it just simply isn't. I
mean, I am the first inmy on my side of the family with

(01:21:54):
an advanced degree. Nobody else does, like, which is crazy, right
Like, and you've got that onelike seventy years ago, exactly right,
So it's not it's not like,oh, I come from a family of
like doctors and wars, like Idon't I know, but like, my

(01:22:15):
wife's my wife's family, Like she'snot there, she's she has a doctorate.
She's not even she's not even theonly one of her siblings that has
a doctorate, let alone her fatherwas a doctor, right Like, but
a like, advanced degrees, advanceddegrees are just commonplace for her side of
the family, like they just theyjust are. So it's not it's not

(01:22:38):
a I mean, fuck, mynephew just got his bachelor's and masters at
the same time, right Like,this's just that's just common. It's just
commonplace. So like you wonder whythere are these systemic roadblocks or you know,
long term growth hasn't happened yet inthe black community because some of us

(01:22:59):
are just getting to that second step, like those famis are just getting there.
He's just going to college, right. He is literally raised by two
as they you know, describe himselftwo criminals. He's just now breaking the
cycle of that, Like, sohow can you expect Like why isn't he
Why does this family have generational wealthand all that other stuff. They just

(01:23:21):
got the college, dude, theyjust got in. And also remember but
also to even before that, hehad to be extraordinary at his school to
be recognized in order to get recommendedto to go to a specialized high school,
whereas for like some other kids,like that's that's the norm to excel

(01:23:44):
in that way. But considering thatthe environment, he is literally extraordinary compared
to other kids who deserve the samechance, but because of the circumstances,
they will never getch that. Andand it's mentioned in that scene as well
that he's going to be going toa place where there aren't a lot of
other at least in minorities what weknow with them at like other black kids.

(01:24:06):
So he's going to have to goto another environment just to excel right,
and look to your point about him, you know, these other kids
having a chance to go to likedo these advanced things. You know,
yeah, he's he's going to adifferent school like to get these But like

(01:24:27):
those kids, even if they're notgoing to that special you know, technical
school, they're getting great educations attheir standard school. All those kids at
his standard school are getting a subparteducation. The teacher basically admitted that,
right, ye, like the otherkids are not as articulate, not even
that they don't do as well ontesting or whatever, or as fast to

(01:24:49):
pick things up. They don't evenspeak well enough to be considered for this
this other high school, let alonecollege, let alone and advanced degree.
It is what she said. Soit's like, don't forget New York City
is one of the most segregated asfar as schools is concerned, in the

(01:25:09):
country. It's not it's I don'tthink it's the most, Like Chicago was
up there too. Yeah, NewYork and Chicago are two of the most
segregated school systems in the in thecountry, just period. Fucking New York
Like that's everybody walks around next toeverybody else on the subway and all other

(01:25:29):
ship when it comes to go intoschools and stuff like that, stay over
there, yeah, you know,and like it's not it's not like that
all over the city, but onaverage, yeah, it's a real it's
a real problem, right, SoI mean, or you could go to
the same you could you could endup like uh, Desas from Deceas and
Marrow who went to the same schoolas Chris Hazen Immortal Technique. But the

(01:25:53):
fun kind of school was that Idon't know, just a random as shit,
but you know, it can happen, but most likely you're just gonna
be stuck in the same zone thatyou always happen. So after this,
after the basketball speech again very verygood, Lucky Lucky shows up again to

(01:26:17):
Anez and he's like after she gotoff work and he's like, she's like,
what are you doing here because he'sbeen kind of missing I guess,
and she's like, oh I canI can't walk to my girl, and
so they kind of they make up, which was nice. It was nice,
Like heyn't apologize, but like that'sa hood apology, right, I'm

(01:26:39):
just gonna show up and they andlike, you don't know this going further
into the movie, but if youstart to look at Lucky, he's starting
to look worse, right, Likehe does, like they've they're sort of
making him up to look older,but also like he just doesn't look like
they're messing with this makeup to makehim look a little little bit more worn,

(01:27:00):
not just old, which is significantfor stuff that comes up later,
which is like like literally the nextscene, yeah, you're actually right.
Yeah, he's diagnosed with cancer.And at this point Terry is now what
seventeen watching his father suffer from this. Meanwhile, a the new the new

(01:27:29):
owner of the their building comes overand he's like, hey, oh you
got a got an old stove andsome old cabinets. I can help you.
You know, I'm a white man. You can trust me. Uh
and yeah, Immediately I think allof our antenna went directly up, like
do not trust this man? Right, It's like the scene from Pocahonas where

(01:27:50):
these white men cannot be trusted,absolutely not. And so he's like,
yeah, I guess get my guysto come over. You know, look
you up with some new cabinets.Have you met Javier. He's our new
super. What a stereotypically obvious namefor the super? Okay, and so

(01:28:12):
she's like, yeah, okay,that sounds great, you can come and
fix the stuff. And then youcome to find out that these assholes like
broke all this shit because they quoteunquote thought it was a full flip.
How that happened, I do notknow. And so they took out like

(01:28:32):
they broke her sink. They tookout like a toilet don't work, and
pipes of leaking and ship and he'slike, well, if you just move
out, uh, we could fixit all. Nah. It was the
way he talked to her when sherightfully got to say, he talked to

(01:28:55):
her like she was a child,like adults, you can leave again nineteen.
She was stabbed that she was readyto go right, ready to go

(01:29:16):
right back to Rikers over that getthe fuck out of here. She made
me furious here when he said,like just act like let's talk like adults.
And I'm like, how about tothrow you out that window? About
that? Like, get how adult? Is that not very you know adults

(01:29:36):
fight like UFC on Instagram, Yeahexactly, they're quite popular. But yeah,
so he's trying to he's trying tolike get her out of the apartment
and Terry after the guy Leaves islike, why didn't you fight? Like,
like, why don't you fight onthat like that like this seemed like

(01:29:59):
some bullshit, like why didn't youdo anything? And basically, I Nez
says without saying it, like listen, like she's been fighting and being like
up in people's faces her whole life, Like she's kind of tired of fighting,
and she she wants to be ableto trust somebody. She's wanting she
wants a situation that doesn't feel likeshe's gotta like go on the attack and

(01:30:25):
and so she's just she's not upfor fighting. Turns out, Terry's instincts
are obviously correct. Terry takes uh. He eventually convinces the girl at that
like that place or whatever, thatthat little little restaurant to go on a
date with him, and you know, she like it's weird because like I

(01:30:50):
didn't really understand much of the pointof this relationship because she's like, yeah,
I don't like any of you,any of your friends, they're they're
stupid. Are you stupid? Andhe's like no, and then he's like,
yeah, I really like you sortof and she's like, yeah,
I'm moving out of town. He'slike, oh, Okay, I felt
like this scene was just was justa show like that, it's it's yet

(01:31:14):
another black woman especially that's challenging.Yeah, I guess she kind of mirrors
an like Terry's like kind of thoughtprocess, like her saying things like it's
okay to be smart, we needmore engineers around here where it's like early
on Terry was not even willing tokind of go to that tech school earlier.
And you can just tell the heatthat some of that. Maybe I

(01:31:39):
don't know if it's shame that hewas probably feeling of wanting to kind of
break out of his own box,so to say. So, I feel
like that the point of that scenewas for her to kind of challenge him
that that wasn't that wasn't coming fromhis mother, especially right, a woman
that he that he wants to bewith. Yeah, but she wasn't Spanish

(01:32:01):
jof And so his mom is like, who was that? Who's that?
Who's that? A little black girl? You're hanging out with your girlfriend?
And he was like, well,you know, it's like, you know,
I don't mess with you know,the the Latin ladies. And she
was like, oh uh, whatyou don't like somebody who looked like you
It's like that's that's gonna sting.And he was like, uh, I'm

(01:32:29):
gonna go ahead and play this PlayStationtwo, Like I think this is appropriately
time for the movie. Let's justconcentrate on that. Terence is like final
correct knocked it out of the park. That start they regained, that one
start they lost. So then youknow, you come to find out Terry's

(01:32:53):
Terry's at school and he's like,yeah, you know, stuff's you know,
a little rough. He's talking tothat black woman who teaches there.
She's like, look, I runafter school program and my nose. He
asks, all I need is yourSocial Security number and in your birth and
your birth certificate, and you canyou can get a job, pay you
a little bit of money. Whydo you need my birth certificate? Yeah?

(01:33:14):
Like, how about I just geta like like a like a like
a work a work pass right,Like go on, I got a one
of them green permits, right,like a work permit like my birth certificate?
Boy? Yeah, and that's crazy, and so he also he also
tells miss Tucker's nose. He asks, is she happy to help? I

(01:33:36):
bet you on? And that womanreally pissed me off. You know,
it's like a fucking automaton, youknow, it's just like having a fucking
bit of humanity. He also tellsher that it doesn't look like her like
his father's gonna be able to comehome, right, so like he knows
that he's that he knows it,like he's dying on on his On his

(01:34:00):
deathbed, Lucky confesses to Inns thathe never really returned her love like he
should have because he didn't understand whyshe even loved him, and he didn't
know if if he deserved it,which is a SA. He asks her

(01:34:21):
why, and he says the samereason why everyone else does. Like,
yeah, that's not that's not agood answer. It's not a really good
answer. And then he goes onto say, you know, I didn't
you know, I didn't know whatthe fuck I'm doing. Yeah, and
look, I mean in this likeand this is why, like I think

(01:34:44):
it is so incredibly important to notGod, I sound like such an old
man here, but like it's soincredibly important to not hold shit like this
in because like, yo, youdon't want it to be your deathbed confession
that you're like you care about peopleor you don't feel whole or whatever,
like to the people that you love. Like that's that to me is the
saddest shit ever. Like you youshould be able to go out and everybody

(01:35:06):
should know how they how you feltabout them, and how they felt about
you, like truly right way beforeyou're you know, you're coughing up a
lung hair on on on a bed. But a lot of people do have
deathbed confessions, which is sad.Lucky dies and they have a like a

(01:35:30):
little you know, like kind ofyou know, a little memorial, a
little party or whatever outside of theirapartment, kind of outside of their building
in the same fashion like when theygot married. Right, And there's a
woman across the street who we hadseen earlier, and she's just like she
just keeps staring over across the streetat at the you know, the shit

(01:35:55):
outside at the funeral basically, andTerry's like, you know, mom,
who was that woman? Just shekeeps staring over there, like staring at
us. She says, that's Lucky'sdaughter and her mother and she just said
make him a plate. And sohe's like, wait, wait, what
what the fuck are you talk So, yeah, you find out that this

(01:36:16):
woman Lucky Lucky had been looking atearlier that we didn't really talk about,
but I Nez called him out forstaring at this woman when he was when
he was younger. He did,in fact, because I was like,
oh cool, he looked at her, like all right, whatever, you
give him a glance. I getit, Like she was good looking,
but she's like you moved on right, you're matured. Well apparently not really.
He was like no, I'm I'mgonna go ahead and go find out

(01:36:41):
what's what's happening. And he gother pregnant and they had a kid.
But I Nez, in her maturityat the end of the day, was
like, look like it is whatit is. He's a complicated guy,
but like they deserve to celebrate himtoo because they loved him as well.
I hope that in my life Iam that understanding. I don't. I

(01:37:04):
don't see it. I don't seeit in me, Like I guess we
just have to fight on the dayof my wife's funeral, Like, like
that would be wild. I don'tknow how that would even happen, but
that would be a wild situation.But I respect people who are able to
be that mature. I really do. We could all we could all learn

(01:37:26):
something from that. I don't knowwhat, but we can all learn something
from it. I don't couldn't bemet me, Get the fuck away,
get out of here, you andyour you and your other kids. But
again, this is this is Inneznow versus h H fourteen years ago or

(01:37:49):
two thousand, two thousand and four. Iinez who would have just walked across
the street and just like probably beatthat lady up and her kid, Like
I just assume. Yeah, Imean, this was twenty two in this
movie we started, so you shouldbe thirty two years, should be thirty
three now, yeah, yeah,yeah, that's a lot of majority for
thirty three. That's a lot ofcould you be that mature? Could be

(01:38:15):
down? If my husband go ahead, he showed up. I means that
whenever I say I would like tothink so no for me, for me,

(01:38:41):
I know what I mean When Isay that, that means no,
I want to But you know,like you, she's like I greet her
like like, hold on, letme put some vassiline on. But I
the child didn't do anything wrong.Put your kid down, child, put
your kids, put your kids.Tell what a second, Let me talk

(01:39:02):
to you with the kids yeah,yeah, like you just bring the baby
over like no, no, rosI need I need you, I need
you to do a favor, Likeno, you don't the fuck you do
the fuck out my face? Comeon now, come on now, I

(01:39:25):
got I got two strikes against me. I'm on, I'm on, I'm
on my last one. Nah.Nah you you buy yourself by yourself.
I got it. But again,uh so, yeah, tr would make
her plate. She'd be cool withit, like, don't worry about and
then bash her over the head withit. Yep. Absolutely, Hey loo,

(01:39:45):
we all we all have to havea last meal sometimes. So you're
not you're not even gonna go withGod is working on all of us,
Like nope, now I'm a fighter. That's fuck. She ain't do nothing
real well, all right, shemight have not a couple of things wrong.
Maybe she ain't No, maybe sheain't know. So nosey ass,

(01:40:08):
miss Tucker. She's like, oh, yeah, you you know your call
came back to Klein, so I'mgonna try to run it again in front
of everybody. She's like, hey, no big deal, your your papers
didn't go through And he's like he'slike, he said, he said my
social Security number Yeah, that wasfunny. I was like, wait a

(01:40:34):
minute. I took me like twoseconds. I'm like, don't have absolutely
no, that's not how it works. Terry. She was like. He
was like, oh, no,whatever, I don't know what he was
going by, but no, yeah, he was going by Devil, Darryl
Terry whatever the last name was.And so she's like, oh, don't

(01:40:59):
worry, let me help you.I've got a friend who works at social
Secure. Let me call him upright now. He's like, whoa,
whoa, slow down, slow down, and he grabs the phone, which
is a definite sign of I thinkI might have fucked up. And and
so she's like, oh, I'lllook into this, I'll figure it out.
And so her nose, he askedlike, ran right into his situation,

(01:41:21):
and she was like, oh,is it cool if I come over
and talk to you? And soshe does her in a cop and and
a social worker and they're like,so, here is the deal. We
don't know how to tell you this. And I'm thinking, Oh, they're
gonna tell him the thing that healready knows, like it's not a big

(01:41:43):
deal whatever, or like this isthe the origin of like why you were
taken into foss care like your mom, you know, used to beat you
some shit, like some crazy shitright not here, she's she just left
because they show up just where theyand she show Yeah, he was looking

(01:42:04):
for He was calling around asking forit because he had told her that that
the woman was coming by and hewas at six o'clock. He was calling
around and then old uputing teacher comesin. I love the I love the
framing. She's like, hey,can I come in? And he's like,
oh yeah, yeah, sure,come in, and then oh yeah,

(01:42:26):
by the way, here's a socialworker and a cop and yeah.
It was like like she does saycan we come in? And she does
say shows up with somebody else anda cop. I'm like, I haint
this some shit? What the fuck? We know? We go into big
jail, two cops shows you needto right there. Yeah, they're not

(01:42:47):
running. It's not a trap houselike relax, like this show was weird.
And of course the apartment looks likehell because the landlord has fucked it
up, not because that's how theywere living, right, which you know,
that was not lost on me thatthat's how they they saw it,
but that wasn't really reality. Sothey're like well, we hate to break

(01:43:10):
it to you, not like Izchidnapped you, like this woman had abducted
you. Like we're like, yeah, we like we know, like we
were there, we saw that,Like we've been watching the whole movie for
two hours, lady, we know. But apparently Iez was never his mom,

(01:43:31):
but in fact a woman who justsaw him on the street and just
took him and decided to raise himand pretend that that was her son.
That is the big you know,h M Knight twist that in fact Iez
is not related to uh, relatedto him at all, and that she

(01:43:53):
just she just saw him and waslike, I'm just gonna raise this kid
as my own. That of coursefuckx Terry up. He was obviously not
aware of this, and neither wasanybody else watching this movie until this point.
And so eventually he calls his hisaunt Kim, and you know,
he's like looking for for his mom, and he's like pretty upset. He

(01:44:15):
heads back to the apartment later on, and and Innez is there and they
have this confrontation which, look,I gotta tell you, I gotta give
I hate to give this woman credit, not not Tiana Taylor, but I
hate to give this woman credit.There's a bit of channeling of Monique's performance

(01:44:39):
from uh Precious in this scene.Like it's very similar, like that cigarette
smoking scene and Precious that's very verygood, Like it's there's a very similar
way that Tiana Taylor performs the scene. I thought it was impressive and she's
she's just like listen, like there'sa level of immaturity that's still in inez

(01:45:02):
right, which she's like, nobodywanted to take care of me, so
I took care of you, right, Like what the fuck? There was
nobody there for me? And likeyou're telling this to a kid, like,
yo, what was he supposed todo? Right? But to me,
it felt like she didn't realize untillike a scene later, that he

(01:45:26):
was the reason she was, Likehe saved her ultimately, because she would
not have grown up, she wouldnot have matured, she would not have
gotten out of her sort of waywardcycle until she became a mom, right
like that, and like she doesn'trealize that. And I think in that
sort of last scene where she kindof smirks, I think that's where she

(01:45:46):
actually realizes, like, oh,like I'm actually I was. I became
a better person because of him notjust going the other way, Like,
how did you guys read this thing? I didn't really understand the smirk at
the end. But this scene herewhen they're like talking to each other and
he's like crying, tearing up,and I'm just like, he got me

(01:46:09):
movie because I just started like Ijust started tears because I'm like, this
is the scene is so good.It's a very good scene. Yeah.
Like, like you said, theydid kind of raise each other, and
they kind of taught each other ship. They taught he taught him. He
taught her to mature because she hadto. And like she did win.

(01:46:31):
She says I won at the endof the of the the argument if I
guess, and she's like, no, I won. He's going to a
better school. She did raise himto be a good kid. And it
wasn't like and the fact that itwasn't like basketball or football or something like
that. It was like, he'sgoing to a tech school. I also
thought was really dope because it doesn'thave to be sports all the time.

(01:46:54):
But she won. She did.She might be going to prison, she
gets caught, but she raised agood fucking She just moved in the next
borough, moved to Long Island.It's only forty only thirty minutes away.
She probably couldn't afford it, butyou know, and it's it's implied that
he got into some really really goodschools, and especially schools outside of New

(01:47:16):
York based on like Lucky telling himgo somewhere far. So I thought that
this was going to go another way. And this is just me expecting the
worst. I I was not expectingthem to kind of just be cool and
even even even in kind of beingcloser in a way at the end,

(01:47:42):
even when they hug and she's like, you know, this isn't goodbye.
I thought that Terry was going tobe like, you know, I'm never
talking to you again, kind ofdisowning her and feeling almost like his life
was a lie, which it was, but in a lot of ways it
was it because they still had ahome and in his relationship with his mother

(01:48:03):
was still very real. But Ialso thought this was going to go in
a way that, like, youknow, he finds out that his papers
of phony and then it ruins anychance of a future for him, because,
as as his teacher said in oneof those things, like if you
lie in your college applications, that'sa felony, and I was like,

(01:48:26):
oh my god, here we go. They're going to him and he's going
to be thrown into surprising he's nevergoing to get an opportunity. And it's
just like all of this was fornothing and that didn't happen. It was
almost like a bittersweet ending in theend, like it's you know, Terry
could have been a victim of ofthe fossil system if Anas hadn't intervened,

(01:48:53):
so in a way, she savedhis life as well. And the way,
it's like, yeah, she didwin any and they both won,
so anyway, I guess they kindof sort of beat the system baby,
just illegally, but he did whathe had to do. It it is

(01:49:17):
and I loved the Nez gets somewhatof a happy end ending both of them.
Do wait, I just I thoughtit was pretty bitter sweet and I
was packing for both of those charactersto kind of get them happy ended.
Yeah, like at your thoughts.So the scene is seems really good and

(01:49:41):
it was able to to like Iwas ready to I was ready to just
be mad, right, I wasready to be mad. I'm like,
well what what what what are youdoing? Like is this some sort of
scam. There's something she's playing areal long game, like like what like
this doesn't make any sense? Whywould you do this? Right? And
I got pissed because she was inthe beginning she was indignant, yeah,

(01:50:04):
and that that really pissed me off. And then she was able to turn
it around and as she explained herself, and you know, she said,
look, I saw you out there, a two year old. I saw
a two year old out there,And I waited around, and nobody came.

(01:50:28):
Who was gonna take care of you? Right? And had that been
anybody else, they'd left and andand like that that's what got me right,
like because like black women are alwaysdoing that ship right, Like they're
always taking in people, especially blackmen, picking their ass up and and

(01:50:51):
and raising them and looking out forhim. And you know, it's this
is the love story and this isI mean, this is this is this,
this seems beautiful this. When shestarted explaining that, that's when I
teared up. I was like,God damn man, like like this is

(01:51:14):
it like like they always doing thatshit. They're always doing it quite literally,
right, like like look at likelike I mean, YouTube haven't seen
me in my younger days. ButJay has like he's seen me, he's
seen me before I met my blackwife, right, Like you needed to
help, you needed it, Ineeded it. Your grown ass cannot survive

(01:51:40):
on must and alone. Yeah thatis terrible diet I live, like,
so yeah, man, like thiswas it. And then she started crying
and I started crying, and everybodystarts fucking crying and shit. But yeah,
this was this was this was somoving for me, man, This
was so moving from me. Andshe even says it, right, she

(01:52:02):
even says it, like I sawsomebody that needed that, you know,
that needed me. But you know, I think I needed you, and
I'm sorry, right, And sheapologized for it, right because like,
yeah, yo, like you're notsupposed to. That's why people when they
when they talk about having kids,right, it's like, nah, yo,

(01:52:26):
don't have them on a whim,Like you gotta really want them,
because you can't. You can't bringa child into the world just because you
think it's cute or you know,like you hope that it will make you
a better person in the end,like it might, but it's gonna put
you through the ringer, man,And it's not something to be taken lightly,

(01:52:47):
and she took that shit on andshe took it lightly, and she
she she was put through the ringer, and she said, but she did
it because she had like this empathy. This this empathy that's in her,
that's in most people, but especiallyblack women for some reason, because they
get I don't know why they haveit. They get trampled on all the
goddamn time. But yeah, man, this was this was it. Man,

(01:53:13):
this is the scene. Yeah,I mean it is really a testament
to like, you know, allof what you said I agree with,
and like you couple all of thatwith the fact that like she didn't come
from like like a lot of meansor whatever. Like she's literally a person
who was in and out of jail. She's literally has a hard life.

(01:53:35):
She was in and out of fostercare herself. So like she knows all
of the all of the system andall of the sort of you know,
the roadblocks of life. She hasexperienced them herself. And even thoughing her
life is not solved and fixed andwhere she's like, oh well, now
I made it through all that.I'm successful. Let me, you know,

(01:53:57):
pick this child up from obscurity andraise them as my own. No,
she's still in it. She's stillin it, but she's just older.
She's not doing better than him,she's just older. And she's like,
I can't let this kid suffer alone. We're gonna If you're gonna suffer
and I'm suffering, we might aswell suffer together. Right, But at

(01:54:20):
least I can try to protect you. I can try to do something the
best I can. And again,the idea that these two people chose to
be, or this one woman choseto be a parent to this child when
she didn't have to, says alot. The fact that she recruited this

(01:54:40):
guy who did not have any desireto be a dad, who was pulled
into this and then he matured tobe a good father before he passed on
says a lot. Right, likeit is the it is like the depths
of those characters their own like likethe character's personal character, like all of

(01:55:00):
that is put into these people andis shown on screen. That it doesn't
matter how much means you have,it doesn't matter where you come from.
As long as you have that humanempathy and you have a desire to do
the right thing by somebody, youcan do amazing things. And like that
line, at the end is really, what does it I want? Right?

(01:55:23):
Like fuck, Because she's not sayingthat really to him, She's saying
it to the system. She's sayingit's a society that put every roadblock in
front of her to fail, right, for her to fail in her own
life, for her to fail inher own career, for her to fail
as a as a as a mother, everything, all of those roadblocks all
put in place, the shitty apartment, the shitty school, then being on

(01:55:47):
the run, having to get fakepapers and fake name, and all of
a sudden ship for her kid,all of this shit, the kid not
even being her kid, being abandoned, all of that, not even knowing
who the actual birth parents are,all of those roadblocks. At the end
of the day, She's still won. That's a powerful fucking statement, especially

(01:56:08):
coming from a black woman. That'sa powerful fucking statement. Now, Man,
this movie deserves all the credit we'regiven it and more. The director
deserves all the credit that she's beinggiven for this, and Tiana Taylor definitely
deserves the credit for this. Forthis performance, I mean, just Stella,
I really like she's done a lotof like sort of like onesie twosie

(01:56:30):
parts and stuff. I'd like tosee her do some other stuff because I
want to see if this is justthis just happened to be the material,
or if she can pull out performanceslike this on a regular because I think
she could be known for a lotmore than just and not that this is
a small thing, more than justbeing a choreographer, because she's got some
real fucking talent. She really does. She's like a quadruple thread like Tiana

(01:56:53):
Taylor is a dope. Yeah,she literally could do any thing anything that
I've seen her do. She's beenexcellent at it. So some people just
some people have it like that.Man, they really do. All right,
I think that is it for usfor episode two forty four a thousand
and one. Look again, ifyou have not seen this movie and you
made it this far, you reallyshould go back and watch it and get

(01:57:15):
those Kleenex ready, man, Likeit's it's it's a great movie and it's
and it shows us as as blackpeople in a nuance uh and a nuanced
way, which I appreciate it andI think we all did. All Right,
that's it for us again. Wewill be back in about two to
three weeks. We're just gonna goand hiat us for a little bit,

(01:57:38):
and so go check out some oldepisodes, enjoy those, and we will
see you guys next time, soright, but yeah, yeah yeah yeah