'Life and Nothing More' Review: Sensitive Neorealist Indie Charts a Black Family's Struggles

CFI Releasing

If, per Thoreau, the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, what do the mass of women lead? To watch single mom Regina (Regina Williams), the central figure in Antonio Méndez Esparza’s dramatic feature “Life and Nothing More,” as she struggles to raise a three-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, the notion of quiet desperation might seem like a luxury. Contemplative brooding doesn’t keep you on your feet at a minimum-wage diner job, or put food on the table, or keep a teenager from worrisome choices with life-altering consequences.

It’s the steady drip of sustaining oneself and one’s loved ones, in a world in which your problems are invisible to nearly everyone else, that undergirds Esparza’s attentive, unvarnished work of modern neorealism, his second such effort in this realm after his 2012 debut about Mexican migrant workers, “Aquí y Allá.”

As with that film, Esparza uses non-professional actors — which in the case of Tallahassee, Florida native Williams amounts to something of a powerfully raw find — and a narrative style built on documentary-like observances from a mostly fixed camera. The result is an effortless directness, and a confidence in the appeal of sentiment-free storytelling, that yields a humming humanity about some of society’s least seen and most oppressed. And as our persistent have/have-not divide continues, with little sign that Black America’s working class is on the minds of the majority of those in power, movies like “Life and Nothing More” take on a certain urgency.

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Regina’s first words say it all, heard on a bus sitting next to her son Andrew (Andrew Bleechington) on their way to court: “I’m f—ing done.” She’s not, of course, but with jail time hanging over Andrew’s head for breaking into cars and not attending scheduled counseling sessions, the last thing she needs is for her stoic, on-the-edge son to follow in the footsteps of his incarcerated father. At school, Andrew silently sits while a teacher drills the Constitution’s “We the People” ideals, while in the back of our minds is the modern reality of this country’s corrosive inequality when laws are applied to young, economically disadvantaged African Americans.

Regina’s frustrations are marked not only by disciplinary outbursts at home, but also in small-talk venting about men at her waitressing job when Robert (Robert Williams, unrelated to his co-star), a burly, inquisitive customer, shows interest in her. His sweet-talking ways eventually wear down her mildly flirtatious, crossed-arms defensiveness, and they begin a relationship, which doesn’t sit as well with Andrew, whose suspicious attitude toward Robert starts to rankle him. For all the ways Regina and her son care about and need each other, their expressions of protectiveness — hers when Andrew is at his most vulnerable, and Andrew’s when his mother has found affection and help in a new relationship — can seem like a haranguing negativity, tragically out of sync with the deeper complexity of the situation.

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Though many scenes play out in long, unobtrusive, and clearly improvised takes that suggest the camera just happened to catch life as it’s happening — as if you were eavesdropping from a nearby vantage point, not always able to see facial expressions or grasp a conversation’s particulars before the movie cuts away — that doesn’t mean there isn’t an authorial nimbleness regarding the power certain images evoke. When, later in the film, an increasingly vexed Andrew starts walking through a well-appointed neighborhood alone, Esparza is clearly nudging us toward thoughts of Trayvon Martin.

What eventually comes of Andrew’s mysterious sojourn is, again, hardly Thoreau-like. It’s thankfully not fatal but still fateful — a confrontation started by a fearful young white couple that sends Andrew right back into the arms of the law — but it’s the kind of third-act indignity that nearly tips “Life and Nothing More” into conveniently dramatic miserableism.

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And yet Williams’ Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance is what saves it, depicting a woman whose checklist of pressures doesn’t allow for anything but a tireless, focused doggedness regarding her family’s survival, especially when the reach of an all too ready-to-pounce, discriminatory justice system is involved.

Movies like Esparza’s aren’t designed to loom large, making the ordinary feel extraordinary, or pushing us toward readily accessible outrage. “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.

12 Black Rom-Coms to Watch, From 'She's Gotta Have It' to 'Hitch' (Photos)

"She's Gotta Have It" (1986)

Spike Lee's feature film debut, "She's Gotta Have It," has to be considered the quintessential Black rom-com. The film, which Lee updated as a Netflix series, tells the story of Nola Darling and her three unique boyfriends. It's been heralded as helping to usher in the indie film movement of the '80s and changing the representation of black people in American cinema.
IMDb
"Coming to America" (1988)

Probably more comedy than romance, but Eddie Murphy's 1988 rom-com "Coming to America" is a classic in either genre. This fish out of water tale follows Prince Akeem (Murphy) of Zamunda on his journey to America, fleeing an arranged marriage. Landing in New York City, he and his sidekick Semmi (Arsenio Hall) try to acclimate to American life, while trying to find a wife of his own. The film also marked the first time Murphy dressed up to play more than one character.
"Boomerang" (1992)

Another Eddie Murphy film makes the list. This time there's no need for him to play any other characters because he's joined by Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, David Allen Grier, Grace Jones, Ertha Kitt and Chris Rock -- need we say more? "Boomerang" is your prototypical rom-com, with a little signature Murphy. He plays a New York marketing exec and womanizer, Marcus. But what goes around comes around in this romantic comedy, leading Murphy's character to find and realize true love.
IMDb
"Love Jones" (1997)

You would be hard pressed to find a more charming, more attractive pair to co-star in a Black romantic comedy in the '90s outside of Larenz Tate and Nia Long. "Love Jones" follows the love at first sight and up and down relationship of two young black artists in Chicago. In an oral history of the film for it's 20th anniversary, Tre'Vell Anderson wrote for the Los Angeles Times: "'Love Jones,' at its core, is about possibilities, those opportunities people of color know exist for them -- in love, life and career."
New Line Cinema
"How Stella Got Her Groove Back" (1998)

"How Stella Got Her Groove Back," adapted from Terry McMillan's best-selling novel, introduced the film community to Taye Diggs, then a Broadway actor known for "Rent." It also gave Angela Bassett one of the defining roles of her career. Her Stella character is an overworked single mom in need of a vacation and some romance, so best friend Whoopi Goldberg takes her to Jamaica, where she meets and falls in love with Winston Shakespeare (Diggs), a man 20 years her junior. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers said of the film: "Whether you regard Stella’s getting her groove back as a feminist battle cry or as a silly wish-fulfillment fantasy, the movie delivers guilt-free escapism about pretty people having wicked-hot fun in pretty places."
Rotten Tomatoes
"The Best Man" (1999)

It's the rare (Black) rom-com that warranted revisiting with a sequel, some 14 years later. "The Best Man," starring Taye Diggs, touts an ensemble cast that includes Nia Long, Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau and Monica Calhoun as a group who come together for their friends' wedding only to have old flings, feelings and drama resurface thanks to a new, semi autobiographical book Diggs' character Harper wrote that threatens the wedding and friendships.
Universal Pictures
"Love and Basketball" (2000)

"Love and Basketball" isn't exactly a romantic comedy, but this coming of age young love story written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood is a classic. The film follows the friendship and relationship of Quincy (Omar Epps) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan) as they grow up and pursue their shared dream of playing professional basketball. The film abandons comedy and instead culminates in a one-on-one basketball game for the future of their relationship that will surely make your heart ache.
New Line Productions
"Two Can Play That Game" (2001)

This Vivica A. Fox-Morris Chestnut rom-com pulls from a familiar story: A self-assured relationship veteran finds herself having difficulty maintaining a relationship. In "Two Can Play That Game," Fox's character puts forth an all-out assault dubbed the "10-day-plan" in order to get Chestnut crawling back to her.
Screen Gems
"Brown Sugar" (2002)

This list clearly needed more representation from Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan. Their 2003 rom-com boasts supporting roles from Queen Latifah and Mos Def. In "Brown Sugar," Dre (Diggs) and Syd (Lathan) have been close friends since childhood, but after Dre proposes to his girlfriend Syd realizes that her best friend might actually be the love of her life.
IMDb
"Deliver Us From Eva" (2003)

It's a take on William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Gabrielle Union plays Eva, is an uptight single woman meddling in her sisters' love lives. To keep her from disrupting their relationships the sisters' boyfriends pay notorious ladies man Ray (LL Cool J) to romance her, date her and break it off a few weeks later. But of course, they fall in love. As Eleanor Ringel Cater wrote for the Atlanta Journal Constitution when the film came out: "Not only is this a funny and romantic movie, but it proves, yet again, that movies can and, in some instances, should be colorblind."
Jim Sheldon/IMDb
"Hitch" (2005)

The New York Times' A.O. Scott dubbed this Will Smith vehicle as "soft and sweet as a marshmallow." Smith plays a romance expert hired to teach nebbishy guys like Kevin James romance women way out of their league -- until Smith's Hitch himself meets his match in Eva Mendes' no-nonsense gossip columnist. Sparks eventually fly, of course.
Columbia Pictures
"Jumping the Broom" (2012)

Paula Patton plays a corporate lawyer who falls for Laz Alonso's ambitious stock broker -- but their Martha's Vineyard wedding runs into conflict between her hoity-toity family and his more working-class clan.
Sony