• About a Boy
• Academy Award
• Alexandre Desplat
• AllRovi
• American Dreamz
• American Pie (film)
• Being Flynn
• Box Office Mojo
• Chicago Sun-Times
• Chris Weitz
• Christian McLaughlin
• Demian Bichir
• Demián Bichir
• Dolores Heredia
• Drama film
• Entertainment Weekly
• Eric Eason
• Gregory Boyle
• Homeboy Industries
• Houston Chronicle
• Jami Gertz
• Javier Aguirresarobe
• Joaquín Cosio
• Little Fockers
• Metacritic
• Nancy Lenehan
• Paul Junger Witt
• Roger L. Simon
• Rotten Tomatoes
• South Los Angeles
• Summit Entertainment
• The New York Times
• The New Yorker
• Une vie meilleure
• Young Artist Award
• 
  

• 
  South Los Angeles
  South Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South L.A. is a large geographic and cultural portion lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California.
  The area was formerly called South Central, and is still widely known as such by its residents. It borders the Westside on the northwest, and Downtown Los Angeles on the northeast.
  In 2003, the city of Los Angeles changed the area's name to South Los Angeles in hopes of removing the associations of urban decay and street crime with which the name South Central had become associated. The Los Angeles Times uses both the old and new names to describe the area. Some residents of the Los Angeles area (including residents of South Los Angeles) still use the old name. Prominent figures from South L.A., such as Ice Cube, also continue to refer to the area as South Central.^{[citation needed]}
  It is home to the University of Southern California, founded in 1880, as well as the Doheny Campus of Mount St. Mary's College, which was founded in 1920. The 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games took place near the USC campus at neighboring Exposition Park, which hosts the Los Angeles Coliseum. Until the 1920s, West Adams was one of the most desirable areas of the city. Then development of the Wilshire Boulevard corridor drew Los Angeles' development to the west of downtown.
  
  wn.com/South_Los_Angeles

• Alexandre Desplat
  Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer. He has received four Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, and two Grammy nominations. Desplat won his first Golden Globe for The Painted Veil in 2006, his first British Academy Film Award in 2011 and his first Grammy Award in 2012 for The King's Speech. Among various projects, Desplat has worked on a variety of Hollywood films including independent and commercial successes like The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, New Moon, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
  Desplat was born in Paris to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, Berkeley. After their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. Alexandre is the younger brother of Vic Desplat. At the age of five, he began playing piano. He also became proficient on trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis in France and Jack Hayes in the U.S. Desplat's musical interests were wide, and he was also influenced by South American and African artists and teachers, among whom were Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. Desplat swiftly became skilled, both as a performer and a composer.
  
  wn.com/Alexandre_Desplat
• American Dreamz
  American Dreamz is a 2006 comedy/parody film that satirizes both American politics and popular entertainment.
  Director/producer/writer Paul Weitz has stated that the movie is meant to satirize both the TV show American Idol and the Bush Administration. Reviews were lukewarm and business was disappointing.
  The roman à clef movie boasts characters who are parody versions of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney,^{[citation needed]} and television personality Simon Cowell.
  On the morning after his re-election, US President Joseph Staton (Dennis Quaid) decides to read the newspaper for the first time in four years. This starts him down a slippery slope. He begins reading obsessively, reexamining his "black-and-white" view of the world in a more "gray-seeming" way, and holing up in his bedroom in his pajamas. Frightened by the President's apparent nervous breakdown, his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) pushes him back into the spotlight, booking him as a guest judge on the television ratings juggernaut (and the President's personal favorite), the weekly talent show American Dreamz, a show similar in format to the modern-day American Idol.
  
  wn.com/American_Dreamz
• 
  Chris Weitz
  Christopher John "Chris" Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American producer, writer, director and actor. He is best known for his work with his brother, Paul Weitz, on the comedy films American Pie and About a Boy, as well as directing the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass and the film adaptation of New Moon from the series of Twilight books. His most recent film is A Better Life.
  Weitz was born in New York City, New York, the son of actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/fashion designer John Weitz (born Hans Werner Weitz). His brother is filmmaker Paul Weitz. He is the grandson of Bohemia-born producer Paul Kohner and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side. His grandmother, Lupita, starred in Santa, Mexico's first talkie, in 1932.
  Weitz's father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and his maternal grandmother was Catholic; he was raised in a "nonreligious" household. He has also described himself as a "lapsed Catholic crypto-Buddhist". Weitz was educated at St Paul's School in London and went on to graduate with an English degree from Trinity College in Cambridge. He is married to Mercedes Martinez, who is Cuban Mexican, with whom he has one son, Sebastian.
  
  wn.com/Chris_Weitz
• Christian McLaughlin
  Christian McLaughlin is a television writer, producer, and author. McLaughlin is a graduate of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas. He gained notoriety in his early twenties with the publication of his novels, Glamourpuss and Sex Toys of the Gods.
  McLaughlin worked as a script writer on:
  He served as a creative consultant for the 2004 Fox reality special Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay but the special was pulled from the schedule before airing following complaints from media watchdog GLAAD. McLaughlin responded to the criticism, saying, "It's unfortunate that a group as well-intentioned as GLAAD is going to set themselves up as censors and judge what other people should be allowed to air or see."
  He met his writing partner, Valerie Ahern, at the University of Texas, and started writing sitcom spec scripts together a year later. Together, they created and produced MTV's Emmy nominated soap opera Spyder Games (originally called Spyder Web) after being approached by Drew Tappon at MTV Series Development; they are currently working with Maverick Television to create the first all-LGBT serial, San Rafael, for MTV's new homosexual channel, Logo. According to Logo, San Rafael is about "the unexpected schemes and twists in the intertwined lives of a group of LGBT friends and foes living in the same apartment complex." (The Advocate)
  
  wn.com/Christian_McLaughlin
• 
  Demián Bichir
  Demián Bichir Nájera (born August 1, 1963) is a Mexican actor and member of the Bichir family. Both of his parents, Alejandro Bichir and Maricruz Nájera, and brothers, Odiseo and Bruno Bichir, are actors. On January 24th, 2012, Bichir was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in A Better Life.
  Bichir was born in Mexico City, Mexico, the son of actors Alejandro Bichir (Alejandro Bichir Batres) and Maricruz Nájera (María de la Cruz Nájera Botello). He began his acting career at the age of 14 in the telenovela Rina with Ofelia Medina. His second acting role was as an adult in Vivir enamorada – both telenovelas were during his years with Televisa. The following year he obtained a role in his first movie, the American production Choices of the Heart. He got his first starring character in the Telenovela El Rincon de los Prodigios where he acts as a stranger that is becoming to perform miracles in front of the people confronting the corrupt authorities and the church.
  
  wn.com/Demián_Bichir
• 
  Dolores Heredia
  Dolores Heredia (born October 6, 1966 in La Paz, Baja California Sur) is a Mexican actress.
  She was born and grew up in La Paz. She's the seventh of ten children. Her mother was a photographer from Sinaloa and her father was a seaman from Guanajuato. She studied drama at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Dolores_Heredia
• Eric Eason
  Eric Eason is an American film director and screenwriter.
  His first feature film Manito premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize and went on to win 16 awards on the International Festival Circuit including Best Film at the SXSW Film Festival, Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Open Palm at New York's Gotham Awards. In 2003 Eason was nominated for Best First Feature and the Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
  Eason's second feature film, Journey to the End of the Night, starring Brendan Fraser, Mos Def, Alice Braga, Scott Glenn and Matheus Nachtergaele premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival..
  On June 24, 2011, Summit Entertainment released "A Better Life (2011 Movie)" a film written by Eric Eason and directed by Chris Weitz that concerns the plight of an Illegal Mexican gardener in Los Angeles trying to give his son a brighter future and avoid deportation. The material seems to be a return to Eason's preoccupations with marginalized characters.
  
  wn.com/Eric_Eason
• 
  Jami Gertz
  Jami Beth Gertz (born October 28, 1965) is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, the 1980s TV series Square Pegs with Sarah Jessica Parker, and 1996's Twister, as well as for her role as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing with Mark Addy.
  She was discovered in a nationwide talent search by Norman Lear, and she studied drama at NYU. Gertz made her film debut in the 1981 romance film Endless Love, which was followed by a co-starring role in the 1982-83 TV series Square Pegs. After its cancellation, she appeared in the teen movie Sixteen Candles in 1984. She gained attention with a starring role in 1987's Less Than Zero, as the friend of a doomed drug addict played by Robert Downey, Jr. She also starred in the 1987 film The Lost Boys as Star, the "half vampire" girlfriend, with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric.
  After working in Paris as a scent designer for Lanvin, Gertz returned to America and landed a key supporting role in the 1996 blockbuster Twister after other films including 1986's Solarbabies and Crossroads also the 1989 film Listen to Me with Kirk Cameron and 1992's Jersey Girl. In the 1994 episode of Seinfeld, "The Stall", she appeared as one of Jerry's girlfriends who works as a phone sex operator and can't "spare a square" of toilet paper to Elaine in the restroom. Gertz later played the recurring character Dr. Nina Pomerantz during the 1997 season of ER. She reportedly was offered, but declined, the role of Rachel Green, during pre-production of Friends.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Jami_Gertz
• Javier Aguirresarobe
  Javier Aguirresarobe (born 1 January 1948) is a Spanish Basque cinematographer. Aguirresarobe was born in Eibar, Guipúzcoa (Basque Country, Spain). He has worked with Imanol Uribe, Montxo Armendáriz, Alejandro Amenábar, and even with Milos Forman and Woody Allen on his Spanish films. He has won six Goya Awards among other prizes. Aguirresarobe also worked as cinematographer for the film adaptation of New Moon, released on November 20, 2009. He continued his work for the Twilight film series with their other sequels in the series.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Javier_Aguirresarobe
• 
  Nancy Lenehan
  Nancy Lenehan (born April 26, 1953 in Long Island, New York) is an American actress who has appeared in film and television since the 1980s. Her most recent starring role was on the short-lived sitcom Worst Week. She also co-starred as Sandy Kelly, the matriarch in the sitcom Married to the Kellys. She also had a recurring role on My Name Is Earl as Earl and Randy's mother, Kay Hickey.
  She has appeared in featured, recurring and guest roles in many television shows and television movies, and feature films, including Malcolm in the Middle, Everybody Loves Raymond, Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, Caroline in the City, Dharma & Greg, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 3rd Rock from the Sun, ER, Boy Meets World, The Nanny, Quantum Leap, Roseanne, V, The Facts of Life, Hill Street Blues and Alice.
  "Ink" .... Nancy Milford (1 episode, 1997)
  "3rd Rock from the Sun" .... Mrs. St. Clair (1 episode, 1997) ... aka "3rd Rock" - USA (promotional abbreviation) ... aka "Encounters of the Personal Kind" - Israel (English title)
  
  wn.com/Nancy_Lenehan
• Paul Junger Witt
  Paul Junger Witt (born March 20, 1943) is an American film and television producer. He, with his partners Tony Thomas and Susan Harris (also his wife), produced such hit TV shows as Here Come the Brides, The Partridge Family, The Golden Girls, Soap, Benson, Empty Nest and Blossom. He also produced the hit films Dead Poets Society, Three Kings and Insomnia. Witt is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Junger_Witt

Better Life, A (2011)

Actors

• Demián Bichir
• Eddie Sotelo
• Joaquín Cosio
• José Julián
• Nancy Lenehan

Director

• Chris Weitz