A Beautiful Life (2008 film)

Last updated
A Beautiful Life
Beautiful life poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alejandro Chomski
Written byWendy Hammond
Starring Jesse Garcia
Angela Sarafyan
Bai Ling
Meltem Cumbul
Debi Mazar
Rena Owen
Jonathan LaPaglia
Dana Delany
Cinematography Nancy Schreiber
Edited byAlex Blatt
Music byRuy Folguera
Release dates
  • August 14, 2008 (2008-08-14)(LAFF)
  • October 2, 2009 (2009-10-02)(United States)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Beautiful Life is a 2008 American drama film directed by Alejandro Chomski and starring Jesse Garcia and Angela Sarafyan. It was released by New Films International, adapted from the play Jersey City by Wendy Hammond. The film received a 0% score on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. [1]

Contents

Plot

A young woman, Maggie (Angela Sarafyan), is on the run from her abusive father. David (Jesse Garcia) is an illegal immigrant working as a dishwasher while searching for his mother in Los Angeles. The two meet and fall in love.

Cast

Release

Although produced in 2008, the film was not released widely in North America until October 2, 2009, and first appeared on DVD on March 1, 2011. [1]

This was the second film by New Films International, a long-existing global independent film distribution company based in Sherman Oaks headed by Nesim Hason, whose new American division was led by Tim Swain. The company describes its focus as "festival-driven, high-quality, cast-driven indie films". [2]

Reception

A Beautiful Life received poor reviews from the twelve sources noted by the Rotten Tomatoes website. [1] Metacritic gave the film a score of 13 out of 100, summarizing the reviews of the seven critics it measured as "overwhelming dislike". [3]

The New York Times called it a "laughably clichéd dive into sexual masochism", [4] and The Village Voice saw it as a "misery pile up ... about broken souls and crossed paths destined for the trash heap. Scream, smash, slap, cry, repeat." [5]

Slant gave it a half-star out of four, saying that "its awfulness [comes] in so many forms that it's hard to single out just one appalling example". [6] Variety felt that it provided "unintentional laughs by the barrel", and predicted that the film would be a box office bomb. [7] NPR said that although the film deals with some serious topics, the random nature of characters and controversies made it hard to appreciate them, [8] describing it as "too earnest to be a hoot, and too amateurish to be anything else". [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten Dunst</span> American actress (born 1982)

Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the anthology film New York Stories (1989) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards including nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golden Globe Awards.

<i>Point of No Return</i> (1993 film) 1993 American film

Point of No Return is a 1993 American action film directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda and Gabriel Byrne. It is a remake of Luc Besson's 1990 film La Femme Nikita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julianne Moore</span> American actress (born 1960)

Julie Anne Smith, known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, and for her roles in blockbusters. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Emmy Awards. In 2015, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Gyllenhaal</span> American actress and filmmaker (born 1977)

Margalit Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal is an American actress and filmmaker. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Linklater</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016); and the romantic comedy Hit Man (2023).

<i>Bless the Child</i> 2000 film by Chuck Russell

Bless the Child is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by Chuck Russell, and starring Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Angela Bettis, Rufus Sewell, Christina Ricci, and Holliston Coleman. Based on the 1993 novel by Cathy Cash Spellman, it follows a woman who discovers that her niece, whom she has adopted, is being sought by a Satanic cult seeking to use her supernatural abilities. The film is a co-production between the United States, Canada and Germany.

<i>Alpha Dog</i> 2006 crime drama film by Nick Cassavetes

Alpha Dog is a 2006 American crime drama film written and directed by Nick Cassavetes. It is based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz in 2000. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Christopher Marquette, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, and Bruce Willis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Sarafyan</span> Armenian-American actress

Angela Sarafyan, sometimes credited as Angela Sarafian, is an Armenian-American actress. She has appeared as a guest star in several television series and has acted in the feature films: Kabluey (2007), On the Doll (2007), A Beautiful Life (2008), The Informers (2008), A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (2011), Lost & Found in Armenia (2012), and Reminiscence (2021).

<i>Regular Lovers</i> 2005 film by Philippe Garrel

Regular Lovers is a 2005 French coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Philippe Garrel and starring Louis Garrel and Clotilde Hesme. Set in 1968, it tells the story of a young couple. The film had its world premiere in the Competition section of the 62nd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2005. It was released in France on 26 October 2005.

<i>New York, I Love You</i> 2009 anthology film directed by Fatih Akın and 10 others

New York, I Love You is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama anthology film consisting of eleven short films, each by a different director. The shorts all relate in some way to the subject of love and are set among the five boroughs of New York City. The film is a sequel of sorts to the 2006 film Paris, je t'aime, which had the same structure and is the second installment in the Cities of Love franchise, created and produced by Emmanuel Benbihy. Unlike Paris, je t'aime, the shorts of New York, I Love You all have a unifying thread, of a videographer who films the other characters.

<i>The Company Men</i> 2010 film by John Wells

The Company Men is a 2010 American drama film, written and directed by John Wells. It features Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones.

<i>Rec 3: Genesis</i> 2012 film by Paco Plaza

Rec 3: Genesis is a 2012 Spanish action horror film directed and co-written by Paco Plaza. The film, which is the third installment in the Rec series, eschews the found-footage format of its predecessors as well as occurs at the same time as the first film. Rec 3: Genesis follows two newlyweds who struggle to reunite with each other after the viral zombie outbreak ruins their wedding reception and infects their families.

<i>Killing Bono</i> 2011 film by Nick Hamm

Killing Bono is a 2011 comedy film directed by Nick Hamm, based on Neil McCormick's memoir Killing Bono: I Was Bono's Doppelgänger (2003).

<i>Paranoia</i> (2013 film) Film directed by Robert Luketic

Paranoia is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Robert Luketic. Barry L. Levy and Jason Hall wrote the screenplay, loosely based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Joseph Finder. It stars Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Amber Heard, and Harrison Ford. The film was released on August 16, 2013, and bombed at the box office, grossing $17 million against a budget of $35 million. The film received negative reviews from critics and was described as "clichéd and unoriginal".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Mickle</span> American director and writer (born 1979)

Jim Mickle is an American director and writer, known for such films as Mulberry Street, Stake Land, We Are What We Are and Cold in July. He also co-developed the SundanceTV series Hap and Leonard, and the Netflix series Sweet Tooth.

<i>The Overnighters</i> 2014 American film

The Overnighters is a 2014 American documentary film written, directed, and produced by Jesse Moss. It premiered on January 18, 2014, as part of the U.S. Documentary Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, and it won the festival's Special Jury Prize. The film also won a prize at the Miami International Film Festival, at which it was screened on March 13, 2014.

<i>Before I Disappear</i> 2014 film

Before I Disappear is a 2014 American drama film directed by Shawn Christensen. The film is a feature-length adaptation of his 2012 Oscar-winning short film, Curfew. The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest Film on March 10, 2014. The film was acquired for distribution by IFC Films on August 5, 2014, and released on November 28, 2014.

<i>Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile</i> 2019 film by Joe Berlinger

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a 2019 American biographical crime drama film about the life of serial killer Ted Bundy. Directed by Joe Berlinger with a screenplay from Michael Werwie, the film is based on Bundy's former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall's memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. The film stars Zac Efron as Bundy, Lily Collins as Kendall, Kaya Scodelario as Bundy's wife Carole Ann Boone, and John Malkovich as Edward Cowart, the presiding judge at Bundy's trial. The title of the film is a reference to Cowart's remarks on Bundy's murders while sentencing him to death.

<i>We Are Boats</i> 2018 American fantasy film

We Are Boats is a 2018 American fantasy film written and directed by James Birdi and stars Angela Sarafyan as a dead prostitute who is sent back to Earth to help various people.

The M Word is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Henry Jaglom and starring Tanna Frederick, Michael Imperioli, Corey Feldman, Frances Fisher, Gregory Harrison and Mary Crosby.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Buchanan, Jason. "A Beautiful Life". Rotten Tomatoes . Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  2. Swart, Sharon (July 15, 2009). "New Films Intl. enters U.S.: Tim Swain to lead domestic distribution unit". Variety. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  3. "A Beautiful Life". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 5, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  4. Catsoulis, Jeanette (October 1, 2009). "Mean Streets and Meaner People". New York Times. p. C10. Archived from the original on December 14, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  5. Anderson, Melissa (September 29, 2009). "A Beautiful Life: Misery Pile-Up About An Abused Teenage Runaway". Village Voice. Archived from the original on December 9, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  6. Schager, Nick (September 29, 2009). "A Beautiful Life". Slant. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  7. Barker, Andrew (September 24, 2009). "Review: 'A Beautiful Life'". Variety. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  8. 1 2 Jenkins, Mark (October 1, 2009). "Review: 'A Beautiful Life,' Sought In L.A.'s Seedier Corners". NPR. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.