'A Better Life' Hits Home For Inner-City Students At Movie Screening (VIDEO)

"A Better Life," directed by Chris Weitz, chronicles the struggles of an undocumented landscaper in Los Angeles trying to protect his teen son from gangs, poverty and a broken education system. When first screened yesterday evening at the Museum of Tolerance in advance of its Los Angeles Film Festival debut, the audience included Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the director and actors Demian Bichir and Jose Julian -- and 75 high school seniors.

The film hit home for many in the graduating class of Gertz-Ressler High Academy, who were the honorary guests of producer Jami Gertz (the school is named after Gertz and her husband Anthony Ressler).

Weitz directed the film as "love letter to Los Angeles" and depicted a side of the metropolis often not seen in Hollywood. Set in neighborhoods like South Central, Boyle Heights, and Bell, the film offers a sentimental and often nostalgic perspective of Los Angeles' oft-ignored South and East sides.

Jax Grande, a student who lives in the Crenshaw district of South Central, said she felt "honored" that she was invited to the screening but feared that the film would be rife with "stereotypes and generalizations" about immigrant communities in South LA. Grande ended up identifying with the teen son in the movie and pointed out, "you don't have to go to a ghetto school" to see a kid rebelling against his father.

When Grande was in ninth grade, she threatened to run away after her mother enrolled her in the academically rigorous Gertz-Ressler High Academy. She explained, "I didn't want to be apart from my friends and I wasn't the type of person to really care about school." Now she's bound for the University of Redlands and says, "I'm really grateful my mom forced me to come to this school ... I think about what I would have been if I hadn't gone there."

One student told HuffPost, "I haven't seen a movie this good in years and years." Citing a personal connection to the issues in the film, he admitted, "I'm afraid if I don't say 'I love you' to my Mom or my Dad while they're getting ready to go work, it could be the last time I'll be able to say it to them."

Like the main characters in "A Better Life" and about four million children in the United States, the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, lives with at least one undocumented parent -- and all the pressures and fears that come along with that status. Bound for UC Berkeley after graduation, he knows that any day could be the day his parents are detained and deported by U.S. immigration officers. He said of the film, "it's like [the director] is playing my memories" -- or more ominously -- filming "some kind of future that could happen to me."

"A Better Life" a compassionate father-son gem

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Bicycle Thief," directed by Vittorio De Sica and written by Cesare Zavattini in 1948, long considered one of the classic films of Italian neo-realism, tells the story of a poor man and his son. Their search for a stolen bicycle the father desperately needs for work becomes a journey that explores poverty and desperation.

"A Better Life" from the always surprising director Chris Weitz employs the same strategy to open up the lives of a Mexican gardener in East Los Angeles and his Americanized son.

Their search for a truck becomes an odyssey of powerlessness and anxiety that creates greater understanding between father and son, who are virtually unaware of each other's lives. Meanwhile the movie tracks the hard reality of what it means to be an illegal immigrant in American society. By keeping things simple and understated, Weitz and screenwriter Eric Eason (working from a Roger L. Simon story) have crafted a little gem where humanity is observed with compassion, not condescension.

You don't make a film like this expecting the kind of grosses Weitz's films such as "New Moon" or "About a Boy" generated. But with targeted marketing and promotions, Summit Entertainment could have a modest box-office hit in "A Better Life," which opens June 24 via Summit Entertainment. Who knows?

It may even pick up a nomination or award at year's end.

Veteran Mexican actor Demian Bichir plays Carlos, an illegal immigrant whose wife long ago abandoned him to raise their young son by himself. While the two haven't exactly prospered, they get by in borderline poverty with Luis (Jose Julian) going to school -- sometimes -- and more or less staying out of trouble with gangs -- so far -- while Carlos scrapes together money as a helper to a gardener with steady clients.

Only now his boss wants to return to Mexico and offers to sell him the truck with all its gardening equipment. Carlos' problem, as it has always been, is he has no driver's license. Any stop by a cop will quickly confirm his undocumented status. Plus, he doesn't begin to have the money to buy the truck.

Hopes get cruelly raised, then dashed when his sister loans Carlos enough money to purchase the truck only for it to disappear the first day on the job. His search for the thief, with Luis a reluctant companion, takes them into gang territory and into contact with strangers with possible ulterior motivations. It's an odyssey that examines many aspects of the human condition, law enforcement, street predators, recklessness and the meaning of family.

There is, in fact, an entire movie going on in the background when its characters travel through the megalopolis that is L.A. by foot, bus or the truck itself: police activity, political rallies, gangbangers, guys looking for work and women bringing home meager supplies are picked up by Weitz's observant camera.

What is unusual here for an American movie, whether from the studios or indie filmmakers, is its willingness to let the movie speak for itself. There is a rich life on display here but the makers trust a viewer to discover it for himself.

The relationship between father and son rests at times as much on what they don't say as what they do. The two males are very different from one another and their different upbringings only partly account for this. Carlos' deeds more than his words impact his son but not always in positive ways.

Luis is American enough to see violence as the easy remedy; Carlos long ago learned the pitfalls of "easy." As the search for the thief and then the truck gets them deeper into troubling areas and tension mounts, the two winds up seeing each other's point of view. But such understanding may come too late to save the family.

Fine and seldom seen L.A. locations, peerless cinematography by Spanish cameraman Javier Aguirresarobe, a perceptive production designer from Missy Stewart and an unobtrusive, Latin-flavored score from the tireless Alexandre Desplat let the moods and environment of the movie seep into a viewer's consciousness. Nothing here is overt; everything, the enigmas and contradictions of life, is subtle and simply portrayed.

By keeping things simple and understated, director Chris Weitz and screenwriter Eric Eason have crafted a little gem where humanity is observed with compassion, not condescension.

The Bicycle Thief, directed by Vittorio De Sica and written by Cesare Zavattini in 1948, long considered one of the classic films of Italian neo-realism, tells the story of a poor man and his son. Their search for a stolen bicycle the father desperately needs for work becomes a journey that explores poverty and desperation. A Better Life from the always surprising director Chris Weitz employs the same strategy to open up the lives of a Mexican gardener in East Los Angeles and his Americanized son.

Their search for a truck becomes an odyssey of powerlessness and anxiety that creates greater understanding between father and son, who are virtually unaware of each other’s lives. Meanwhile the movie tracks the hard reality of what it means to be without documents in American society. By keeping things simple and understated, Weitz and screenwriter Eric Eason (working from a Roger L. Simon story) have crafted a little gem where humanity is observed with compassion, not condescension.

You don’t make a film like this expecting the kind of grosses Weitz’s films such as New Moon orAbout a Boygenerated. But with targeted marketing and promotions, Summit Entertainment could have a modest box-office hit in A Better Life following its L.A. Film Festival premiere. Who knows — it may even pick up a nomination or award at year’s end.

Veteran Mexican actor Demian Bichir plays Carlos, an illegal immigrant whose wife long ago abandoned him to raise their young son by himself. While the two haven’t exactly prospered, they get by in borderline poverty with Luis (José Julián) going to school — sometimes — and more or less staying out of trouble with gangs— so far — while Carlos scrapes together money as a helper to a gardener with steady clients.

Only now his boss wants to return to Mexico and offers to sell him the truck with all its gardening equipment. Carlos’ problem, as it has always been, is he has no driver’s license. Any stop by a cop will quickly confirm his undocumented status. Plus, he doesn’t begin to have the money to buy the truck.

Hopes get cruelly raised, then dashed when his sister loans Carlos enough money to purchase the truck only for it to disappear the first day on the job. His search for the thief, with Luis a reluctant companion, takes them into gang territory and into contact with strangers with possible ulterior motivations. It’s an odyssey that examines many aspects of the human condition, law enforcement, street predators, recklessness and the meaning of family.

There is, in fact, an entire movie going on in the background when its characters travel through the megalopolis that is L.A. by foot, bus or the truck itself: police activity, political rallies, gangbangers, guys looking for work and women bringing home meager supplies are picked up by Weitz’s observant camera.

What is unusual here for an American movie, whether from the studios or indie filmmakers, is its willingness to let the movie speak for itself. There is a rich life on display here but the makers trust a viewer to discover it for himself.

The relationship between father and son rests at times as much on what they don’t say as what they do. The two males are very different from one another and their different upbringings only partly account for this. Carlos’ deeds more than his words impact his son but not always in positive ways.

Luis is American enough to see violence as the easy remedy; Carlos long ago learned the pitfalls of “easy.” As the search for the thief and then the truck gets them deeper into troubling areas and tension mounts, the two winds up seeing each other’s point of view. But such understanding may come too late to save the family.

Fine and seldom seel L.A. locations, peerless cinematography by Spanish d.p. Javier Aguirresarobe, a perceptive production designer from Missy Stewart and an unobtrusive, Latin-flavored score from the tireless Alexandre Desplat let the moods and environment of the movie seep into a viewer’s consciousness. Nothing here is overt; everything, the enigmas and contradictions of life, is subtle and simply portrayed.

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