Esparza's updated take on neo-realism encompasses striking use of nonprofessional actors whose work could hardly be improved upon.

| Oct 22, 2020

Many small moments here [tremble] with the painful reality of America's grand tradition of inequity.

| Aug 13, 2020

The reflection of daily life is achieved through a smart handling of narrative tools, building an artifice that seems random but it's measured to create the sense of credibility. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 5, 2019

It's like if the huge potential of the script had been consumed by a wobbly direction.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 31, 2019

In his vivid depiction of the characters' daily lives, which slowly becomes immersive in spite of the detached camerawork, Méndez Esparza invites us to share in their perspective.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 19, 2019

Because Esparza's a dramatist, not a melodramatist, the experience of watching "Life and Nothing More" becomes truth, and nothing less.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 18, 2019

A lot of it could pass for a documentary, until upon reflection you realize how carefully Esparza's set up his story beats.

| Jan 4, 2019

A powerful, potent and poignant look at race, class and family in today's America, director Esparza has crafted a superlative, naturalistic drama

| Dec 15, 2018

An unvarnished cinema verité look at a family dealing with some hard knocks.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 29, 2018

Esparza's vision of motherhood, as a fortress whose foundations must hold even on the shakiest of grounds, pulls us into a soaring emotional tide, and keeps us entranced, marveling at Williams's talent and charm as a non-professional actor.

| Nov 7, 2018

Minimalist, economical storytelling has rarely felt so full-bodied.

| Nov 5, 2018

Sharply observed and quietly powerful, this intimate glimpse into a cycle of juvenile delinquency and socioeconomic despair achieves a gut-wrenching emotional resonance.

| Oct 27, 2018

Unsweetened by any score and unwilling to supply an emotional payoff, the film sometimes plays more like anthropology than cinema.

| Oct 26, 2018

In its final minutes, Life and Nothing More articulates that it's an act of no small bravery to look in the face the very thing you have been running from, ready to be heard but also to hear.

| Oct 26, 2018

Life and Nothing More both captures an American reality and pulls it apart to make a point, without dishonoring the people whose lives it's based on.

| Oct 26, 2018

One of the year's most essential films.

| Oct 26, 2018

A neo-realist treatment of Black life that suggests how Africans endure conditions not unlike the postwar Italy that inspired De Sica et al.

| Oct 25, 2018

Emotionally generous, volatile, and scrupulously honest, Williams's performance is as extraordinary as the precisely controlled film in which she is the cherished centerpiece.

| Oct 24, 2018

Esparza is a sublime directorial talent, possessing a fascinatingly subtle command of his medium with a desire to capture the oft-discarded aspects of life, seemingly pursuing a deeper honesty in the parts of ourselves we choose to ignore regularly.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Oct 24, 2018

It's a shame we never get to know Andrew as well as Regina... but it's even more affecting when Andrew's initially passive existence escalates due to white fear, and his mother is left to fight for his chance at life.

| Oct 24, 2018