A Better Life

Carlos Galindo is a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles without legal status, working as a gardener to support his teenage son, Luis. He wants Luis to have opportunities he never had, but the boy is drawn toward the local gangs, and immigration authorities are a constant threat. When Carlos's truck, essential to his livelihood, is stolen, father and son set out to recover it, a journey that tests their relationship and their hopes for a different future.

The film was directed by Chris Weitz and written by Eric Eason, with Weitz producing alongside Paul Junger Witt and Jami Gertz. It followed Weitz's earlier work on Down to Earth, About a Boy, The Golden Compass and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and came before Operation Finale and Afraid. Demián Bichir plays Carlos, with José Julián as Luis, and the cast includes Chelsea Rendon, Dolores Heredia, Joaquín Cosío and Carlos Linares. Released in June 2011, the drama runs 98 minutes and was made for about 10 million dollars, earning roughly 2 million worldwide.

Audiences received it well: it holds a rating of 7.2 on IMDb from around 17,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, while critics gave it 6.9 from 104 reviews.