A Better Life
Carlos Galindo, a Mexican illegal immigrant and veteran Los Angeles day laborer, struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while trying to give his son the opportunities he never had.
1969, Chicago, Illinois, USA
6 October 1966, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
11 January 1981, Colombia
21 July 1975, Caguas, Puerto Rico
8 April 1983, Los Angeles, California, USA
26 April 1953, Long Island, New York, USA
12 January 2003, Whittier, California, USA
15 August 1968, Chicago, Illinois, USA
November 14, 1991 in Bell Flower, California, USA
August 17, 2012
A Better Life's sense of place and eye for detail are strong, but the too-smooth style and rushed dramatics are at odds with the hardscrabble existence on display.
February 22, 2012
[A] gentle, honest, heartfelt film, but [it] does not have much to offer beyond an earnest respect for a segment of American society that is too often derided...
January 26, 2012
The silver lining is an excellent lead performance from Bichir.
January 04, 2013
Well-acted, but quite over-hyped -- a melodramatic Mexican-American version of "Bicycle Thieves."
July 15, 2011
The people here seem real, their world is shaky at best, and the political tension that permeates everything in this film feels palpable.
September 14, 2014
The film's beautiful simplicity is carried massively on the work of Demián Bichir, instantly and surely one of the best performances seen in 2011.
July 15, 2011
Bichir redeems the secondhand plot and on-the-nose dialogue.
July 15, 2011
A Better Life has more to offer than good intentions: it's sincere and credible, which is more than I can say about an awful lot of movies. Yet something about it kept me at arm's length: I felt the filmmakers' presence instead of...
August 26, 2012
A Better Life is a half-step removed from the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
July 15, 2011
Bichir delivers a powerful, nuanced performance as a stoic but complex character who treats everyone -- even those who have wronged him -- with a dignity he rarely receives.
July 15, 2011
Personalizes the illegal immigrant experience and digs much deeper into what has become a national disgrace.
July 27, 2011
The didacticism takes the shine off Weitz's accomplishment, even if the film builds up enough empathy to generate slow-burning emotional impact.
