best movie i've ever seen.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie isn't a debate for or against illegal immigration, but it's does tell the story of a illegal alien Carlos Galindo (Demian Bichir) and why he came to America. It's for a better life, hints the title. Carlos's wants to make sure his son Luis (José Julián) is given the opportunities he never had. He sees it with buying a new pick up truck, but when it got stolen. He and his son must work together to find it. The movie is very similar to 1948's Bicycle Thieves where the soul-stirring experience stories are about fathers and sons trying to improve their lives for themselves while the world is trying to limited them. Carlos is an honest, caring man who must live in the shadow of the law working as a gardener. Always trying to be careful with his life in fear of getting deported, he tries hard not to get into anything that can endanger his dreams. His son Luis, is of the age when he is easily influenced by his peers group mostly his best friend Ramon (Gabriel Chavarria) who is waiting to join a gang and forget about school in lieu of making money and living high. Luis sees this as a way out of poverty. Only by reconnecting with his son, can Carlos save him from a life of crime. The movie seems very real to the source material. The acting by Demián Bichir is one of the best, I ever witness, outstanding performance and I can see why he was nominated for a Oscar for this role. The ending will live you with puddle of tears, because how emotional draining it is. It's so sad, but beautiful. If you are a person that want to understand migrants and all around them you have to watch it and I am promise that you are going to change your perspective about. This movie will inspires discussions about immigrations. I have never really been on one side or the other on the illegal immigrant issue, but I will say if someone has extreme right beliefs, then this is not a movie for you. There is rarely any faults, I can find in this film. It can seem one-sided on topic of immigrations, but its not. Clearly if you watch the deportment scene. Some of those people are truly criminals and does not act like Carlos. They are truly dangerous. Some of them have strong reasons to be deported out of the country. Plus, it's not a movie about just Latinos. Anybody can get deported. If you watch those scenes again, you can clearly see that. Anybody who hates immigrations, must not know that immigrants made up most of the country. Most of them, illegally. Honestly, only the Native American are the only ones that are pretty much legal to the land. Still the movie doesn't only deal with that issue. It's a movie about gang life, socioeconomic conditions and the plight of the inner city as well. There was no left wing agenda in this film. It's about the relationship between a man and his son. That's all. Throw out the political issues aside for two hours and enjoy the film for the dynamic relationship between the father and son.

Its hard to imagine living in a world like the one portrayed in A Better Life. But you are brought into it with such ease that you quickly forget that this cycle of work, sleep, work, sleep and provide for your family isn't the norm. You are so brilliantly made part of that world that you fell like Carlos (the father) is one of your own and you feel for his every move.Carlos is a deeply respectful man. He does things that he believes to the the right way of doing things. And this includes making his entire existence about providing for his 14yr old son, no matter how ungrateful he seems. Perhaps its a sign of my age (mid 30's) that I really felt more of an affinity towards Carlos and his never ending struggle and could see all he hard work and effort go seemingly unappreciated. I really felt his pain and his desire to provide a better life for his son, to give him the opportunities that he never had.But what brings the film together is when the one life line he has to provide that life for himself and his son is taken from him. I'd like to say it becomes a thriller or an action, because that would be so easy to describe. But far from the far fetched thrillers that normally grace our cinema screens, the need to resolve this situation feels much greater than if this was a Bruce Willis movie for example. The solidarity for the father, Carlos, that has been built up so well in the first half hour of the movie gives you a real understanding for the desperation that he feels when everything seems to be crashed down around him. The frantic, seemingly fruitless, mission to regain what was stolen is felt by the viewer with every step. And where Luis (the son) represents youthful exuberance with is American influences all rolled into one, Carlos is the exact representation of old world values and of south of the border.All in all a very very entertaining and emotional journey that leaves you with a better understanding of how certain people live and how their lives are a desperate struggle to try and better themselves and the chances that are afforded to their children. The ever present threat of gang land involvement is done tactfully and doesn't encroach on the plot or at any point become stereotyped. It is what it is, an ever present option to Hispanic youth growing up in these types of neighbourhoods.If you fail to feel a tear in your eye or a lump in your throat at some point during the film, then I'd be surprised. Thoroughly recommended.

Bichir's spectacular performance aside, I am not convinced with the power of this movie's story that seems to impress most other reviews I have glanced across.Main reason being parts of the plot itself seems to be inconsistent with what I would expect to see in reality. The key event in this film - the truck being stolen - is what I find to be utterly ridiculous on the father, given that he has been in this line of business for so long (and had demonstrated enough business sense and maturity to gain the trust to 'inherit' the business) he should not have been this naive to allow such a thing to happen WAY TOO soon.That goes the same for other inconsistent events. Another aspect of disappointment comes from the side characters. Poor acting performance is not the issue here (assuming they are not professional actors themselves), but the main culprit is that the director has failed to allow each of these characters to evolve their roles more significantly to address the key subject matters which this film is trying hard to convey. Even the son is too one-dimensional which is far below my expectations. I do not see any hint of attachment or chemistry from these characters' to the main leads nor addressing communal/political/immigration issues in their own way. Their conversations are dull, like poorly made soap operas. In fact, the only impression I had was that they were just extras filling up the time to make the movie longer than it should be. I have watched other movies dealing with similar themes but at least those movies have proved to be more wholesome than this one.

What would we do for a better life? How much would we suffer to give it to people we love? How many times would we get up after the fall? For people like me, who never had to crack my ass off working to pay bills, never needed to take care of anyone, I can only see myself in José Julián character, Luis. Because my mother and father has to, and still have to hold things on to provide to me what tey didn't have when they were young. And for this, I see them on Demián Bichir character, Carlos Galino, which he does AMAZING, by the way.Better life get an unknown actor and put him to perform on of the best characters i've ever seen. Carlos Galindo ain't just a character, he is real, he does exist, by different names from different countries and nations.Not every actor in this movie is as great as Demián Bichir, but they still leave they're marks, like Gabriel Chavarria as Ramón.The writing is amazing, the Mexican gangsta accents were pretty interesting for me to hear, since the difficulty any person who speaks English would have to understand them. But coming back to the written, it is clear and clearly represents an simple 4 old boy and his hard worker father. All other characters also were well represented and they personality exposed.What was the BEST about this movie was it's soundtrack. It's just stunning! and you don't have to pay much attention to note it. To bad I couldn't find anywhere to download it. Because it worth it to hear again, as the original as the other tracks. It's brilliantly placed when needed. Can't, and don need to talk much about, because this movie is a Must See, so you'll face this amazing soundtrack just like I did.The photography is clear and also creates a drama atmosphere. Drama which could not always get me by surprise, thanks to those closes on objects, denouncing whats gonna happen in the following moments. But even thou it could take me by surprise giving to those characters one problem after another to take care.Another issue was when it finished. I just though "already?". This kind of movie really deserves a little bit more of time to develop. ACtually, it had has it's develop. But I wanted to see more.Since not everyone has much idea about how much crapp an illegal immigrant has to go through. And the humanity, humility and strengh Carlos Galino shows it's just jealously. We should watch at this movie as an anthropology class, not just a drama movie, there's thousands of dramas about love we can see if the idea is just felling sick a little bit.A Better Life it a must see. Seet it.