Preparation for the Next Life
2025 · Movie · R · 116 min · ★ 5.9 · 75% critics
A young immigrant trying to survive in New York’s hidden restaurant world crosses paths with a recently returned veteran struggling to rebuild his life. As their bond deepens, both begin to imagine a future beyond loneliness, hardship, and the paths they thought were already set for them.
Based on Preparation for the Next Life
Where to watch
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and MGM+.
2 hours to watch.
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Details
- Years
- 2025
- Release date
- 2025-09-05
- Language
- English
- Rated
- R
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Max quality
- UHD
- Critic score
- 75/100
- TMDB rating
- 5.9/10 (31 votes)
About
You may be interested if you like intimate, troubled romances with themes of displacement and second chances, somewhat in the vein of If Beale Street Could Talk; Not for you if you need convincing chemistry or a tightly paced story.
Pros: emotionally weighty premise; gritty New York setting; themes of reinvention | Cons: weak romantic chemistry; meandering story; hard-to-believe relationship
Themes
- new york city
- based on novel or book
- undocumented immigrant
- juvenile detention center
Cast & crew
Sebiye Behtiyar
as Aishe
Fred Hechinger
as Skinner
Landyn Lu
as Munro
Ella Rouwen Chen
as Chen
B. Todd Johnston
as Jim
Maxwell Almono
as Luis
Justin Cotta
as Cop (Times Square)
Alicher Adill
as Aziz
Dralla Aierken
as Arzu
- EU
Erden Uyghur
as Young Aishe
Directed by Bing Liu