Aliens?

There's a lot of power in movies.  Bob and I recently watched three very different movies that introduced us to three people (one fictional) who in some ways were aliens in the mainstream culture.  The people and their films are spell-binding.  I hope you'll check them out.
_________________________________________________________________________________

 Become immersed in the life of a non-documented worker's harsh life in LA and his hope for his son by watching A Better Life.  We found it very moving and  Demian Bichor's (Carlos) performance deserving of his nomination for Best Actor.  What is it like to live without a driver's license and an inability to rely on police?

A Better Life:

Roger Ebert began his review as follows,
Carlos is an undocumented Mexican immigrant who works as a gardener tending the lawns of Los Angeles residents who are rich, especially from his point of view. He lives from hand to mouth and day to day in a tiny house whose garden is used to raise starter plants for his clients. His wife left some years ago, and he raises his 15-year-old son, Luis, by himself.

In "A Better Life," these two men are being pulled apart by life in America. Carlos (Demian Bichir) keeps a low profile, works hard, holds traditional values. Luis (Jose Julian) hasn't joined a gang in his neighborhood yet, but that would seem to be his trajectory. He misses school, he quietly considers his dad an irrelevant loser, and when he asks for money and there isn't any, he knows how to get under his father's skin: "I'll jack a little old lady."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Meet one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, Alice Neel.  She didn't lead a conventional life, but chose to lead a life true to herself and her passions--that of an artist and a feminist with a strong social conscience.  It took a lot of courage and came with a high cost, at least as far as her children were concerned.
Alice Neel with her Self Portrait, 1980 (from her website)


Alice Neel:
Director Andrew Neel looks at the life and work of his grandmother, Alice Neel, one of the 20th century's best portrait artists, in this documentary that uses interviews, photos and art to detail her struggles as a painter and single mother. (from Netflix)

__________________________________________________________________________________
 Quentin Crisp, with his "outlandishly effeminate appearance," was a writer, performer, and raconteur.  He accepted any invitation for a free dinner and charmed his benefactors with his stories.  Born in England in 1908, he lived there until his move to New York in 1981.  Many of those years were difficult for a man who lived an openly gay life.  Sting immortalized him in song and part of the lyrics in the chorus are, "I'm an alien I'm a legal alien.  I'm an Englishman in New York."

An Englishman in New York:


John Hurt plays celebrated, iconic gay author-artist Quentin Crisp (the subject of Sting's song, "Englishman in New York") in this pseudo biopic that chronicles Crisp's high-profile move from London to New York's Bowery in the 1980s. (from Netflix)
__________________________________________________________________________________
 What a trio these films make!  Don't miss meeting any of these people...your lives will be enriched.