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

Light Protect Me From Oblivion

Light Protect Me From Oblivion

A portal, a sorceress, a fictional device to portray existence as a moment encapsulated inside an instantaneous photograph to present fragmented biographical elements —family disintegration, rootlessness, scars, two loyal companions, the promises of a new land—subverting the notion of a home-movie and transform it into a pilgrimage tool of self-discovery, mirroring the fragile nature of memories.

Don't Come Back from the Moon

Don't Come Back from the Moon

The men of a small town on the edge of nowhere mysteriously disappear, one by one, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves in a desolate and dreamlike world.

The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.

The Chumscrubber

The Chumscrubber

The Chumscrubber is a dark comedy about the lives of people who live in upper-class suburbia. It all begins when Dean Stiffle finds the body of his friend, Troy. He doesn't bother telling any of the adults because he knows they won't care. Everyone in town is too self consumed to worry about anything else than themselves. And everybody is on some form of drug just to get through their days.

The Zodiac

The Zodiac

An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.

High Crimes

High Crimes

A female attorney learns that her husband is really a marine officer who has been AWOL for fifteen years and accused of murdering fifteen civilians in El Salvador. Believing her husband when he tells her that he's being framed as part of a U.S. Military cover-up, the attorney defends him in a military court.

Life as a House

Life as a House

When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father.

The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea

After the murder of his beloved wife, a man in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy "The Finn", becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.

Freeway

Freeway

Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride by school counselor Bob Wolverton. During the journey, Lutz begins to realize that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer and manages to escape by shooting him several times. Wounded but still very much alive, Bob pursues Lutz across the state in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

The Majestic

The Majestic

Set in 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

Alpha Dog

Alpha Dog

Johnny Truelove likes to see himself as tough. He's the son of an underworld figure and a drug dealer. Johnny also likes to get tough when things don't go his way. When Jake Mazursky fails to pay up for Johnny, things get worse for the Mazursky family, as Johnny and his 'gang' kidnap Jake's 15 year old brother and hold him hostage.

Love Comes Later

Love Comes Later

An unexpected discovery forces an undocumented motel employee to make a life changing decision.

Ken Park

Ken Park

Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

Sideways

Sideways

Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.

The Sure Thing

The Sure Thing

Gib, a beer-guzzling slob, and Alison, an uptight Ivy-Leaguer, are an unlikely duo stuck together on a cross-country trip during Christmas break. At first they get on each other's nerves but, as time passes, they find their divergent natures complement each other. Now they need to realize what they've already found before it's too late.

Brick

Brick

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

Cutter's Way

Cutter's Way

Alex Cutter is a boozy, belligerent and deeply cynical Vietnam veteran whose encounter with a landmine during the war has left him minus an eye, a leg and an arm. When his drifter playboy friend Richard Bone is falsely accused of murder, Cutter sets out for revenge in his own inimitable style.

Foxes

Foxes

A group of friends come of age in the asphalt desert of the San Fernando Valley, as set to a blazing soundtrack and endless drinking, drugs and sex.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

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

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.

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.

Borderline

Borderline

Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.

The Pumpkin Eater

The Pumpkin Eater

Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.

Frozen River

Frozen River

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

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.

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.

Come Sunday

Come Sunday

Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

Resurrecting the Champ

Resurrecting the Champ

Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ's story and escape the shadow of his father's success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family.

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.