The Good Life (2008)

Mature themes, violence, coarse language and sexual references

In the small-town heartland that has always been the defining state of mind for America, there are two worlds. There is a community whose focal point is the local sport team, and there is the alienated existence of the kid who doesn�t fit in. In THE GOOD LIFE, director Steve Berra sketches a portrait of life in these worlds that is full of both torment and hope. JASON PLAYER (Mark Webber) works two jobs, struggles with his uncaring family, is tortured by a bully (Chris Klein), and in general is quietly suffocating in the provincial insularity of his town. Other than that, the local cinema, which is literally on its last legs�as is its aging operator, GUS (Harry Dean Stanton) is Jason�s one escape and window to the outside world. But when he is courted by a beautiful and mysterious stranger, FRANCIS (Zooey Deschanel) and befriended by ROBBIE (Bill Paxton), his desperate existence takes a dramatic turn that will change the course of his life forever.