Chris Weitz – A Better Life (DVD)

Filmmaker Chris Weitz admits his most recent film “A Better Life” has been a lot harder to let go than any of the other films he’s directed over the last 12 years, which include “About a Boy,” “The Golden Compass,” and “New Moon.”

Part of the reason Weitz has held the film so close to his heart is because he comes from a Latino background himself. His grandmother, Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, starred in the Spanish version of “Dracula” in 1931.

“It’s part of the reason I did the film and why it sticks with me,” Weitz told me during an exclusive interview for the DVD release of “A Better Life.”

“A Better Life” stars Demián Bichir (TV’s “Weeds”) as Carlos Galindo, an undocumented day laborer working to provide for his son Luis (José Julian) while living in Los Angeles.

I caught up with Weitz, 41, who was on his way to Bakersfield, California to accept an award from United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta.

What is it going to mean to receive an award from someone like Dolores Huerta for your work on “A Better Life?”

For this movie to make an impact on someone like her is extraordinary. She was fighting the good fight when it was dangerous and unfashionable to take on that kind of political cause. It’s an amazing seal of approval for the film. I am beyond honored to be receiving it.

HB56, a new immigration law making it legal for police officers to ask people for their immigration status, just passed in Alabama. What are your initial thoughts on the bill?

I think it’s disgusting. I think it’s a national shame. I think it shows how little understanding politicians have of the immigration issue. They’re acting like the 11 million undocumented people who are living in the shadows right now are taking jobs away from people. What they’re actually doing are taking the jobs nobody else is willing to do. What’s going to happen is that the fruits are going to rot in the field. Anytime these jobs are opened up to the average American, they don’t want to do it. These jobs are vital to our economy and generally done by immigrants from Mexico or Central America. The affect of this act is to tear apart families, frighten people who for the most part are good, church-going, hard-working people, and to enact federal policy as state law. There is no question the immigration system is broken. I don’t think anybody on either side of the aisle thinks everything hunky dory. The answer is actually something more like what President Regan did in ’86, which was to provide a path towards naturalization. The plan was never fully carried through. When this recession ends, we’re going to realize a lot of people we’ve been kicking out would be really helpful to us. These people are working in our healthcare industry and our agriculture industry.

What do you think is going to happen when fear overtakes these undocumented people inAlabama? I mean, parents are already pulling their kids from school. People aren’t showing up for work.

I think what’s going to happen is they’ll move on to another state. Rather than have the opportunity to integrate people into society, Alabama is pushing more people into the shadows, making them more desperate and exploited. In 1986, when people got a path toward citizenship, they had more incentive to invest in their schools, to buy houses, and to start their own businesses. The Center for American Progress has estimated that if these undocumented immigrants were naturalized, they could pump $1.5 trillion into the economy. It’s really important to acknowledge that you’re not going to remove all these people from this country. The estimated cost to do this is $200 billion. There’s never been a round up like that before. The only thing to compare it to would be the internment of Japanese Americans (in 1942) and that was on a much smaller scale. It can’t be done.

President Obama recently called immigration reform an “economic imperative.” However, three years since he took office we’re still waiting for a concrete plan. Do we need new leadership or can the Obama administration do something to finally get things moving forward?

I don’t think we need a change of administration. It’s obvious the Republicans aren’t going to do anything for immigrants. Two things can happen: Either the Obama campaign can decide to get tough now and put its money where its mouth is or they can do what it seems like their doing, which is play it softly hoping that a second term will allow them to enact reform later. Now, the question is whether Obama will be able to get the same voter base he did in 2008. We’ll have to see. There was something like a six million person shift in votes for Obama in the Latino community. How many of those people are going to come a vote again, who knows?

Were you prepared to answer questions about immigration reform when you decided to direct “A Better Life?”

I wasn’t really ready to take on questions in a political fashion. At the beginning, I just thought it was a great script. Then, I started going to conferences like the NCLR (National Council of La Raza) and the CHCI (Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute) and realized I had to start to learn my stuff. The more I learned, the more I realized the film – although it’s not political at all in its content – was timely with the issues at hand, whether its something about the Dream Act or dividing families or the faulty immigration processing system. I’ve been unable to depart from this movie in the way I’ve been able to with any other film. This one has really stuck with me. It’s good because I really wanted my career to turn a corner in some way, but I really didn’t know how. This movie provided that.

Not many people know you come from a Latino background yourself. Did that help connect you to this story in some way?

Yeah, it did. I was part of the first generation of my family not to speak Spanish, which is very much like the kid (Luis) in the movie. He lost touch with his roots and so had I. The movie was an excuse to learn Spanish. I felt the right way to make the movie was to have a bilingual set, crew and cast. It’s been a really invigorating experience. It’s made me understand Los Angeles better. It’s made me feel like a better citizen. I’m still learning Spanish. My grandma came to America when she was 17. She still lives here. She is 101 years old. She still has her Mexican citizenship. She’s been a resident alien for 84 years because she was proud of where she came from.

What do you think about Demián Bichir’s chances of earning an Academy Award nomination for his role?

It would be hard for me to handicap it, but I just know it’s rare for a movie to be carried on the shoulders of one actor like Demián. It is a wonderful thing when the Academy recognizes someone who is relatively little known in this country. I know we’re in the hunt, but we’re going to have to work hard to get ourselves a spot. If he gets a nomination, I think it would be a really wonderful thing for the Hispanic community and people who really care about this pressing issue.

A Better Life

Starring: Demián Bichir, José Julián, Joaquín Cosio
Directed by: Chris Weitz (“About a Boy”)
Written by: Eric Eason (“Manito”)

It might be a Mexican-American version of the classic 1948 Italian neorealist film “Bicycle Thieves,” but “A Better Life” could not have come at a more appropriate time, as immigration policy advocates continue to plead with the feds to rule on the constitutionality of a raft of new immigration laws being implemented in a variety of states. The film also comes on the heels of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist José Antonio Vargas’s startling and nervy revelation of his undocumented status in an essay he wrote for the The New York Times.

No matter where you stand on the subject, “A Better Life” offers an honest and deeply moving depiction of a Mexican immigrant’s struggle to provide for his son and raise him well enough to never have to follow the same difficult path he chose. While the themes have been confronted before (it’s comparable to, but less melodramatic than, “Under the Same Moon,” and isn’t paced as gradually as the locally produced 2007 drama “August Evening”), “A Better Life” has its own distinct voice and a tender stroke of humanity that keeps it from being lumped together with any overstated political message.

In a nuanced and award-worthy performance reminiscent of Independent Spirit nominee Pedro Castañeda in “August Evening” and Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor,” Mexican actor Demián Bichir (“Che”) embodies a father not only desperate to find a lifeline as a day laborer (his truck and landscaping tools have been stolen), but to also reach his teenage son on a level of emotional understanding and mutual respect.

The stakes are high in “A Better Life” and Bichir matches the film’s tormented tone with a portrayal of a man overcome by both fear and faith. It’s the latter, however, that encourages him to fight for the things that are most important to him no matter what may stand in the way.

New Moon

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner
Directed by: Chris Weitz (“The Golden Compass”)
Written by: Melissa Rosenberg (“Twilight”)

It would be easy enough to dismiss “New Moon,” the latest vampire romance of the newly dubbed “Twilight Saga,” as easily digestible hokum, but you have to at least give author Stephenie Meyer credit for finding a niche in the horror genre no one else imagined. Whether or not you’re a fan of skinny pale vampires with waxed hair, Meyer has created a brand name that has impacted pop culture tremendously over the last four years.

But as millions of twihards swarm into theaters donning their “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” tees, most if not all go in with terrible cases of tunnel vision. Find someone with an unhealthy obsession for the “Twilight Saga” and you’ll find a devoted fan no matter how deficient the movie actually is. For anyone with a more discerning eye, it’s much easier to pinpoint all the flaws that make “New Moon” an average gothic fairy tale aimed at girly-girls not old enough to watch “True Blood” yet.

In “New Moon,” Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is starting her senior year in high school and still dating Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson), the hottest blood-sucker on campus. As their relationship continues to develop, Bella can’t stop thinking of the impending future that awaits them. Someday Bella will be an old woman while the immortal Edward will forever be the hunky vampire she fell in love with.

The only solution Bella has is for Edward to turn her into a vampire so they can be together for eternity (talk about commitment!). Edward, however, isn’t enthusiastic on the idea of turning his lady love into a monster. After an unfortunate paper cut incident at Bella’s birthday party (a subtle tribute to Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula” most twihards won’t notice), the sullen Cullen decides that Bella would be much safer if he and his family left Forks, Washington never to return.

Waiting in the wings to comfort Bella during her montage of depression is the always shirtless Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a Native American tween who Bella turns to once Edward is gone. The love triangle becomes more complex when Bella finds out Jacob has been hiding a secret from her the entire time they’ve spent together – he’s a werewolf…and he hates vampires.

It all sounds kind of silly reading it as it probably did for Meyer when she wrote it and when screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg adapted it. The script is definitely not one of the finer features of “New Moon.” Like it predecessor, the stale dialogue spewed out by the leads can’t be ignored. When Edward tells Bella “you give me everything just by breathing,” you’ll wonder who else in the world other than Pattinson could get away with delivering such a tacky one-liner to a girl without getting laughed at.

Besides the questionable choices in romanticism, Rosenberg places entirely too much emphasis on things we already know. Edward and Bella are star-crossed lovers, so why reference “Romeo and Juliet” again and again? While it’s in Meyers’ original text, it’s a cliché choice to have included in a film already inundated with enough hamminess to fill the next two films in the series 10 times over.