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Apr 30, 2017Nursebob rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
The much feted “War on Drugs” is visited by yet another documentary filmmaker, but this time around Matthew Heineman skirts the usual exposé of official collaboration and failed policies and instead focuses his lens on two very different men on opposite sides of the Mexican border who have more in common than first appearances would suggest. Shot in the usual jerky handheld style one associates with guerrilla filmmaking and making effective use of night skies and a fortuitous thunderstorm or two, Heineman concentrates mainly on Mireles (no naïve innocent himself) as his vision goes from heroic liberator to disillusioned martyr and beyond while the drug trade itself seems to receive little more than an inconvenient dent. Cynical with just a touch of despair, Heineman offers no solutions to the endless cycle of poverty, greed, and corruption but rather showcases a few brief victories in an all-consuming battle which shows no signs of slowing down. The fact that he bookends his film with scenes of an outdoor drug lab where masked men stir steaming cauldrons of meth like Macbeth’s witches only heightens the sense of futility.