A Better Life

[StevePulaski]

Demián Bichir struggles to make a decent living in A Better Life.

Rating: ★★★½

If there is anything from independent cinema that you should make time for in the year 2011 it's definitely Chris Weitz's A Better Life. It depicts an illegal immigrant, with a fourteen year old son, who is trying to live day-by-day in a neighborhood dominated by crime, gangs, and gratuitous violence. The man is named Carlos Galindo, played by Demián Bichir, while the boy's name is Luis and is portrayed by José Julián.

Carlos is a landscaper, only wanting the best for his surly son, and he finally seems to get the golden opportunity when his boss decides to sell him his truck so he can make more money and become more stable in his career. Carlos accepts, buys the truck, but then it gets stolen soon after. Carlos and Luis then aspire to recover the truck by roaming through the scummiest parts of L.A. and searching for their possession and themselves.

The predictability of A Better Life is there, but it ultimately works because of its touching, pitch perfect screenplay and its fabulous actors who are blessed with some of the best material written this whole year. Every actor is chosen in the film, not for their name, but for their unsung abilities yet to be the center of a Hollywood film.

By doing a film like this, the filmmakers and actors must realize that acting and believability is the key to a script like this. This is such a current topic that a film should and needed to be made on the typical struggles of a Hispanic family. A Better Life, I'll say it again, is blessed with such great material it not only comes off as strong but important and valuable.

What really caught my eye was that actress Jami Gertz is a producer credit on the film. Gertz hasn't acted in anything major since the CBS sitcom Still Standing, which ended in 2006. She too hasn't put her name on any recent projects which lead me to believe that something in the film must've truly "clicked" or inspired her to take part in it.

Director Chris Weitz was also the man behind the camera when it was time to shoot The Twilight Saga: New Moon. It seems after focusing on an ever-so-popular novel franchise for teen girls, he wanted to pursue his own creative idea. An idea that will surely rake in a lot less at the box office, but an idea more sentimental and smarter than one like Twilight could ever aspire to be.

A Better Life is gritty and raw, and roughly one of the better independent films in years. Once in a while you'll get an independent film that really wants to let you know that it's an independent film by showing off artsy shots of scenery and incorporating little to no dialog in it. Then there are some works of indie art like this where their goal is to tell a good story, with heart, soul, and a brain. A Better Life fits into that category like a puzzle piece.

Starring: Demian Bichir and José Julián. Directed by: Chris Weitz.