Producers: Lemore Syvan, Ron Kastner
Screenwriters: George F. Walker, Max Mayer
Director of Photography: Kurt Lennig
Editor: Steve Silkenson
Production Designer: Mark Ricker
Music: John Davis
Principal cast: Olympia Dukakis, Roy Scheider, Ed Herrmann, Deborah Hedwall, Catherine Corpeny, Wendy Hoopes, James Villemaire

Dysfunctional families may be brutal to experience from the inside, but they can be quite fun to watch, as Max Mayer proves with his robust and literate dark comedy, Better Living. Roy Scheider perfectly captures the film's blend of lunatic behavior and deep family emotions in his delightful performance as Tom, a crazy but determined dreamer who casually returns to his suburban family after disappearing without a trace fifteen years earlier. Tom is the loose center of an emotionally adrift family that clearly deserves each other but doesn't know how to live together. Based on a play by George F. Walker, Better Living is notable for its witty writing style, its fine ensemble (featuring a gleefully loopy Olympia Dukakis), and its shrewd understanding of the intense dynamics of family life. - David Schwartz