Life & Nothing More

Synopsis

In his remarkable second feature, Spanish-born filmmaker Antonio Méndez Esparza follows up his debut drama Aquí y Allá with a sensitive portrait of working-class people struggling in the margins of society. Stressed by the mounting pressures of raising two children and fighting to get by on minimum wage, single mother Regina (Regina Williams) longs for more to her life than constant work, while attempting to instill in 14-year-old Andrew (Andrew Bleechington) the values that she hopes will prevent him from winding up in prison like his father. Andrew yearns, too, for his absent father and a sense of purpose, driving him towards a dangerous crossroads that threatens to upend the tenuous balance Regina tirelessly endeavors to maintain. Méndez Esparza employs documentary-style realism in this emotionally rich snapshot of race, class, and the bonds of family in contemporary America.