CARTEL LAND (Matthew Heineman). 100 minutes. Opens Friday (July 10). Rating: NNNN
Where to watch: iTunes
Cut like an action movie, with director Matthew Heineman accompanying paramilitary forces into free-fire raids to capture drug lords in Mexican bodegas, Cartel Land is an unapologetically cinematic take on the crime documentary – breathless, intense, spectacular.
Heineman rides along with two civilian militias that have formed in recent years to combat the lawless thuggery of the Mexican drug industry. His footage of the Michoacán Autodefensas – formed by physician José Manuel Mireles to stop cartel forces from occupying entire towns – is immediate and terrifying, revealing both the cost of resistance and the inevitable corruption of the righteous.
A parallel narrative following Arizona Border Recon, an anti-immigration force assembled to stop illegal migrants coming into the U.S., is less successful. ABR’s leader, recovering addict Timothy “Nailer” Foley is a great subject, but his group is a thousand miles from the action. They just sit around parroting FOX News slogans, waiting for a confrontation with drug thugs that will never come.
Some subtitles.
