Backdrop fallback

A Better Life

A Better Life

Share

A Better Life

"Every father wants more for his son."

2011

1h 38m

7.2(289 votes)

Drama

Overview

An Indigenous Latino American gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.

Where to Watch

Buy

Google Play Movies

YouTube

Rent

Google Play Movies

YouTube

Amazon Video

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Summit Entertainment

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Demián Bichir

Demián Bichir

Carlos Riquelme

José Julián

José Julián

Luis Galindo

Chelsea Rendon

Chelsea Rendon

Ruthie Valdez

Dolores Heredia

Dolores Heredia

Anita

Joaquín Cosío

Joaquín Cosío

Blasco Martinez

Carlos Linares

Carlos Linares

Santiago

Bobby Soto

Bobby Soto

Facundo

Nancy Lenehan

Nancy Lenehan

Mrs. Donnely

Gabriel Chavarria

Gabriel Chavarria

Ramon

Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin

Charlie

Creative team

Directed by: Chris Weitz
Written by: Eric Eason
Roger L. Simon
Produced by: Jami Gertz
Chris Weitz

Similar Movies

Palo Alto, CA

Palo Alto, CA

On their last night of Thanksgiving break, four old friends, now all college freshmen, realize their small town has more meaning than they ever imagined.

Long Lost Son

Long Lost Son

Fourteen years after her son and estranged husband were presumed lost at sea, Kristen believes she glimpses them in the background of a friend's recent vacation video.

Tenemos una Voz!

Tenemos una Voz!

Santiago Domingo is a child of an immigrant who is concerned about the recent changes on immigrants. As he retells the day where he found out these news.

Carbon Copy

Carbon Copy

A middle-aged married wealthy white corporate executive is surprised to discover that he has a working-class black teen-age son who wants to be adopted into the almost-exclusively-white upper-middle-class community of San Marino, California.

Hitch Hike

Hitch Hike

A bickering couple driving cross-country through California pick up a psychotic hitchhiker with two million dollars who threatens to kill them unless they take him to Mexico.

Deep Valley

Deep Valley

A shy California farm girl falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett, a fugitive from a chain gang building a road through the wilderness.

Raven's Ridge

Raven's Ridge

Baxter Bodine thinks he's planned the perfect robbery. From an armored car at a local horseracing track, he and his friends have liberated a huge amount of money, hiding it deep in the woods with plans to return for it in one year- But Baxter planned wrong - and he gets a surprise visit from the LAPD. Now it's up to his friends to recover the cash.

Interception

Interception

When a prototype weapon is stolen from a government facility a software engineer unknowingly becomes involved when he receives the key disk needed for detonation. With no help from authorities he is forced to team up with a suspended FBI agent to stop the group of criminals from destroying a major US city.

The Big Bluff

The Big Bluff

When a scheming fortune hunter finds his rich wife is not going to die as expected, he and his lover make other plans to get her millions.

Johnny Stool Pigeon

Johnny Stool Pigeon

A federal agent infiltrates a crime syndicate.

Rock Haven

Rock Haven

The coastal California community of Rock Haven is the perfect place for cute eighteen-year-old Brady and his loving mother to begin a fresh start. Their mission: to spread the word of the Lord. But while roaming the beach one day, Brady meets Clifford, a young man who is the complete opposite of him: outgoing and athletic as well as incredibly handsome. Their initial encounter stirs up feelings of homo desire that Brady has been suppressing. Once Clifford makes it clear that their attraction is mutual, Brady's conflicting feelings of religious obligation and natural impulse go into overdrive, and the two young men must navigate their confusion, lust and beliefs in order to come to a mutual understanding.

Vandalism

Vandalism

Two young high school boys spike the punch at a Halloween party, mischievously let the air out of car tires, and finally steal a car to go for a joyride. They're caught and thrown in jail, and, as the narrator says, this proves that pranks lead to "habit-forming wildness," and, of course, such anti-social behavior cannot be allowed to happen

Reform School Girl

Reform School Girl

A young man steals a car and ends up involved in a pedestrian fatality. The only witness is a girl he has just met. He threatens her life if she talks, so when she refuses to tell what she knows, she is sent to reform school.

Fremont

Fremont

Donya, a lonely Afghan refugee and former translator, spends her twenties drifting through a meager existence in Fremont, California. Shuttling between her job writing fortunes for a fortune cookie factory and sessions with her eccentric therapist, Donya suffers from insomnia and survivor's guilt over those still left behind in Kabul as she desperately searches for love.

Nanny

Nanny

Aisha, a Senegalese immigrant who takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family in New York City, finds herself consumed by unsettling visions and a growing rage.

Dreams I Never Had

Dreams I Never Had

A teenage girl is held captive in the home of a wealthy family. She is befriended by the family's young gardener, himself an illegal from Mexico. Their friendship carries both of them through their hopeless, sequestered lives and ultimately inspires them to break free.

Unimundo 45

Unimundo 45

When an anti-immigrant candidate wins the presidency, a jaded Latina news producer sheds her cynicism and reconnects with her suppressed activist side on live TV.

No Address

No Address

A group of individuals who unexpectedly fall into homelessness. They bond together as an unconventional family, struggling to survive on the streets while warding off a harassing gang, an unforgiving community, and local authorities.

Envelope

Envelope

Two young girls search out their respective fates and futures in 60's Hollywood, amidst confusion from their personal lives and an envelope that shed light on destiny.

London Babulu

London Babulu

While there is nothing wrong in aspiring for a better life abroad, the means are as equally important as the goal. Making use of forged certificates and lying to the authorities in the desperation for getting a visa will eventually result in nothing but trouble.

Recommended Movies

The Book of Henry

The Book of Henry

Susan, a single mother of two, works as a waitress in a small town. Her son, Henry, is an 11-year-old genius who not only manages the family finances but acts as emotional support for his mother and younger brother. When Henry discovers that the girl next door has a terrible secret, he implores Susan to take matters into her own hands.

Short Term 12

Short Term 12

Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.

Black or White

Black or White

A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.

Rancho Notorious

Rancho Notorious

A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.

A Million Miles Away

A Million Miles Away

The life of engineer and former NASA astronaut José M. Hernández, the first migrant farmworker to go to space.

Horse Sense

Horse Sense

After treating his rancher cousin shoddily in L.A. Michael Woods is sentenced by his parents to spending a month on the ranch with his cousin and aunt.

Thieves' Highway

Thieves' Highway

Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.

The Verdict

The Verdict

After an innocent man is executed in a case he was responsible for, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.

Dad

Dad

A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Hard-nosed liberal lawyer Roman J. Israel has been fighting the good fight forever while others take the credit. When his partner – the firm's frontman – has a heart attack, Israel suddenly takes on that role. He soon discovers some unsettling truths about the firm – truths that conflict with his values of helping the poor and dispossessed – and finds himself in an existential crisis that leads to extreme actions.

John Q

John Q

John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

The Judge

The Judge

A successful lawyer returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to discover that his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder.

The Color of Friendship

The Color of Friendship

Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.

In America

In America

A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

Minari

Minari

A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

An Unfinished Life

An Unfinished Life

Stoic and heartbroken, Einar Gilkyson quietly lives in the rugged Wyoming ranchlands alongside his only trusted friend, Mitch Bradley. One day, the woman he blames for the death of his only son arrives at his door broke, desperate, and with a granddaughter he's never known. But even as buried anger and accusations resurface, the way is opened for unexpected connection, adventure, and forgiveness.

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

Frozen River

Frozen River

A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

The River

The River

Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.