Edgar Quintero lives in Los Angeles and writes songs about Mexican drug dealers, painting them as badass outlaws. Richi Soto is a crime scene investigator in Juarez, a city which saw over 3600 murders in 2012. (In 2006, that number was 320. Then the drug wars came to town.) Director Saul Schwarz tells both men's stories in his attempt to paint a portrait of Mexican drug culture, and if the back-and-forth feels heavy-handed at times, well, it's heavy material. Dismembered bodies in the streets — that sort of thing. And the back and forth isn't always so back and forth: Quintero is invited to hang with the gangsters, and Soto hears the drug ballads at a family party. Unflinching, brutal, fascinating, and horrifying, this documentary includes enough narrative intrigue for four or five features, starting with the luxury gravemaker at the film's end. (2013) — Matthew Lickona
This movie is not currently in theaters.