Cartel Land 2015

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Looking at the Mexican drug wars from both sides of the border, "Cartel Land" is punchy and vital but not particularly informative. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Variety: Startling access yields strong if not consistent results in "Cartel Land," Matthew Heineman's parallel portrait of vigilantes policing two different fronts of the drug war. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: All vigilante groups are not created equal; here, the nuances sometimes get lost. Read more

Suzanne Condie Lambert, Arizona Republic: Some documentaries are about answers. Others are about questions. "Cartel Land" is about the hazy territory in between ... Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Even if it leaves you wanting more, "Cartel Land" deserves to be seen. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: A worthwhile report on a pressing humanitarian issue. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: By the end of Heineman's rattling 98 minutes, the war on drugs seems more than ever like a war destined to go on forever before being lost on every side. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: As the film demonstrates, this is far from a black-and-white situation. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: What you're left with is the sickening realization that this cycle of violence is as hopeless as it is unstoppable. Read more

Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter: Cartel Land [is a] spellbinding, verite documentary -- a frontline look at the murderous Mexican drug cartels. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: If the key to price in real estate is "location, location, location," the key to success in verite-style documentaries is "access, access, access." Which is what "Cartel Land" has in compelling amounts. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Watching grandmothers face down the military trucks, we might be tempted to hail Mireles as a hero. But Cartel Land is interested in how idealism becomes corrupt. Read more

Aleksandr Gorbachev, Newsweek: Cartel Land feels like Breaking Bad in real life, with characters even more complicated and controversial than Walter White. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Heineman was lucky to come out of this project intact. After viewing Michoacan's mayhem from a more comfortable distance, Cartel Land viewers may feel similarly fortunate. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Director Matthew Heineman's camera shows the cost of lawlessness and the power - and institutional powerlessness - of the people. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: What's missing is a directorial point of view, including about vigilante groups, the so-called war on drugs, and Mexican and American policies and politics. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Cartel Land offers a chilling glimpse into a world of violence and vigilantism. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Surveys two different frontiers of the disordered relationship between Mexico and the United States without trying to deliver moral lessons. Read more

Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader: It's one thing to invent a vigilante drama as darkly perfect as this, it's another to capture it as it actually unfolds. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: This raw and compelling (if necessarily incomplete) documentary focuses on the recent battles between drug cartels and vigilantes along the Arizona-Mexico border. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: A jaw-dropping documentary about two vigilante groups, on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to stave off Mexican drug cartels. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Shot in times of serious danger, it balances idealism and violence, triggering an adrenaline high and a sense of soul-crushing hopelessness in the same instant. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Much of the documentary Cartel Land, an immersion into the Mexican drug traffickers and citizen vigilantes, is hair-raisingly intense. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: There are scenes here unlike anything you've seen. Timely, thoughtful and supremely well-constructed, we'd be stunned if this isn't the doc to beat on Oscar night. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: One of the year's most important documentaries ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Cartel Land" reveals a culture that spans the border, full of death and dismaying behavior on both sides, but thriving all the same. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Although the film has its shortcomings and simplifications, it's a bleakly persuasive view of a decades-long combat that respects no boundaries, and seems to hold no prospect of surcease. Read more