X
- 2018
- CFI Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
- 2018
- CFI Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
Summary Standing on the edge of adulthood, Andrew yearns to find his purpose as a young African-American in today's America. With his mother longing to find more to her life then parenting, Andrew is forced to take on the mounting pressure of family responsibility. His search for connection with an absent father, leads him to a dangerous crossro...
Directed By: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Written By: Antonio Méndez Esparza
- 2018
- CFI Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
- 2018
- CFI Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
Life and Nothing More
8.5
Summary Standing on the edge of adulthood, Andrew yearns to find his purpose as a young African-American in today's America. With his mother longing to find more to her life then parenting, Andrew is forced to take on the mounting pressure of family responsibility. His search for connection with an absent father, leads him to a dangerous crossro...
Directed By: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Written By: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
82
93% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
82
93% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Esparza’s aim is to capture nothing more than the relentless flow of “life itself,” a term famously selected by Roger Ebert for the name of his 2011 memoir and its subsequent 2014 cinematic incarnation.
Whereas a Hollywood director might use subjective framing or emotional soundtrack cues to nudge audiences’ reactions in a certain way, Esparza strips away nearly all those techniques to a pure, neorealist approach: life and nothing more.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 19 User Ratings
8.5
89% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
5% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 19 User Ratings
8.5
89% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
5% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Regina Williams’ performance in Life & Nothing More naturally and incredibly portrays the life of a struggling single mother in America. Perfectly staying in character, she livened the film to the point where I often forgot I was watching a movie. Her character not only represents millions of women bearing the same adversities, but it also brings to light the struggles that many endure, and she seamlessly executes that role. Truly looking forward to seeing more from her, and I highly suggest you watch her performance in this movie.
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Life and Nothing More is such a beautiful film and is so hyper realistic at times that you forget that you’re watching a movie and not a documentary. The film is able to achieve this by using nonprofessional actors (who do a fabulous job acting, the lead actress even won awards for her performance in this film) and doesn’t really use a lot of linear storytelling/exposition, so the film comes off as more of a slice of life rather than a drama. Nonetheless, there is plenty of drama in the film and the story that’s told is extremely compelling, the pain these characters go through can be felt by everyone in the audience as early as the opening sequence when the film establishes that Andrew, one of the main characters, is alone most of the time and has to watch over the house and his little sister while his mother is working. It was so easy to connect with these characters and really get **** in to the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and i think it deserves to be seen.
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It’s full of life, guided by first-time screen performers portraying versions of themselves. And because Esparza’s a dramatist, not a melodramatist, the experience of watching Life and Nothing More becomes truth, and nothing less.
Life and Nothing More may be shot with the unblinking attention of Frederick Wiseman’s films — and share their same broad scope of concerns — but it’s always true to the tenderness of its title.
Life and Nothing More wants to be a window where no part is unsmudged or unnecessarily ornamented, and the view is remarkable for showing what you rarely see in two movie hours: a respect for the naturally compelling immediacy of the everyday struggle.
By letting the cast improvise their reactions through the lens of their experiences, Esparza finds truth instead. By highlighting Bleechington and Williams’ performances, he exposes how injustice is the new “normal” and how the consequences of one’s misfortunate reverberate well beyond him/herself.
The acting is strong, but the uneven pacing means there is so much to absorb in the end, that it’s impossible to discern.
Life and Nothing More is about so many things- families, growing up, systemic racism, poverty- but at its core the film mostly cares about the characters as real-life people with a vast range of feelings and emotions. The characters are so easy to latch onto and find yourself so badly wanting them to do well. It explores the redeemable qualities in us all and what it takes to be supportive of someone. It’s a deeply intimate film with a devastating and brilliant ending, but everything is earned and felt.
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Life and Nothing More has just the right amount of everything: right amount of dialogue, right amount of characters to follow without being distracted, right amount of details that don’t fluff. There is nothing that overloads you about it, and it’s refreshing to see a movie that falls in between of too much and not enough. It’s a very balanced piece that I recommend seeing either for pleasure or for analyzing craft.
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Life and Nothing More is a full-bodied, raw look at family, race and the working class in America today. The film presents the topics of racial profiling, the 2016 election, and the challenges of being a single mother while working for minimum wage. While these problems are persistent throughout the film, they are largely in the background as the main goal of the film is to present the lives of the characters as they are lived moment to moment. These moments were filled with nuanced performances from the cast that explore the relationships between the characters. The acting from this non-professional cast was phenomenal and on par with any award-winning actor.
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Antonio Mendez Esparza’s Life and Nothing More is realistically depicted drama with a socially relevant plot line. The film portrays the story of a single mother named Regina and her teenage son Andrew and young daughter Ry'nesia. The family father figure is in prison, so Regina must work long, hard hours in order to financially support her family. While her son Andrew seems to find himself into trouble with the law, Regina does the best she can to teach Andrew right from wrong and lead him down the right path, unlike his father. This film is an emotional and raw story of a black family simply doing their best despite the seemingly constant and inevitable challenges they are faced with in our society.
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This film is one of the most moving films I’ve seen in a long time. “Life and Nothing more” does an incredible job of delivering characters that are truly authentic in a story that you can’t help but be enthralled by. The story is such genuine representation of life in southern America, showing the powerful realness in the dialogue and situations the characters find themselves in as the story unfolds. The film calls out cultural issues the south faces every day, drawing attention to the link between poverty and racism. I was not at all surprised to find that this film was named in Variety’s top 10 films of 2018. I was so captivated by this film, and I recommend you allow this film to captivate you too!
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Production Company
Aquí y Allí Films,
Film Constellation,
Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA),
Movistar+,
Televisión Española (TVE)
Release Date Oct 24, 2018
Duration 1 h 54 m
Genres
Website
https://www.cafilm.org/lanm
Awards
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Black Movie Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
