Narco Cultura (2013)
85%RT Audience Score: 77%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Disturbing, thought-provoking, and timely, Narco Cultura sheds some crucial light on an important — and underserved — subject
Narco Cultura is a documentary that will make you want to hide under your bed and never come out. It’s a terrifying look at the Mexican drug wars and how they’ve infiltrated every aspect of society, from music to movies. But don’t let that scare you away from watching it! The film is eye-opening and thought-provoking, and it will leave you with a new understanding of the world we live in. Plus, it’s a great conversation starter for your next dinner party. Just make sure you have plenty of tequila on hand to calm your nerves.
Production Company(ies)
National Geographic Documentary Films, Ventureland Storyteller Productions,
Distributor
Cinedigm
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for grisly graphic images of disturbing violent content, drug material, language and brief nudity.
Year of Release
2014
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:1h 43m
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Language(s):English, Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 22, 2013 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 25, 2014
Genre(s)
Documentary
Keyword(s)
Narco Cultura, documentary, addiction, money, drugs, violence, war on drugs, R rating, English, directed by Shaul Schwarz, produced by Todd Hagopian, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, reviewed by Peter Rainer, Marc Savlov, Justin Lowe, Geoff Berkshire, Michael Sragow, Kenneth Turan, Morgan Rojas, Steve Erickson, John Powers, Sr Rose Pacatte, Jared Mobarak, Michael Atkinson, box office gross $144.4K, Cinedigm, actors not applicable, MPAA rating R, drug material, disturbing violent content, brief nudity, grisly graphic images, language, Bryan Chang, film editing
Worldwide gross: $163,690
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $204,571
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,927
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 22,309
US/Canada gross: $145,088
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $181,323
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,561
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,093
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $7,615
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,756
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Todd Hagopian – Producer
Lars Knudsen – Producer
Jay Van Hoy – Producer
Jeremy Turner – Original Music
Bryan Chang – Film Editing
Director(s)
Shaul Schwarz
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
Todd Hagopian, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy
Film Festivals
Sundance
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (5)
Photojournalist Shaul Schwarz’s powerful documentary Narco Cultura gets inside the world of two men who, in very different ways, inhabit this horror.
December 13, 2013 | Rating: A-
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor
TOP CRITIC
It’s impossible to watch Shaul Schwarz’s grueling documentary about the Mexican drug wars and their influence on the whole of Mexican society without wondering how on earth such a hell on earth could have erupted right in our back yard.
December 6, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
This issue-based journalism piece yields diminishing returns the deeper it digs.
December 6, 2013
Justin Lowe
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
An eye-opening examination of Mexico’s blood-soaked drug war and its unsettling pop-culture side effects, Narco Cultura is as overwhelming as it is absorbing.
December 6, 2013
Geoff Berkshire
Variety
TOP CRITIC
This haunting documentary contrasts songs saluting Mexican drug lords as heroic bandits with the harrowing reality of life in murder-stained Juarez.
December 6, 2013 | Rating: A
Michael Sragow
Orange County Register
TOP CRITIC
This dispassionate but devastating film looks at the drug wars from two very different but chillingly complementary perspectives.
December 5, 2013
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Narco Cultura is not for the weak of stomach, but if you can get past all the blood and dead bodies, it is one of the most eye-opening and critically disturbing films of 2013.
March 1, 2019
Morgan Rojas
Cinemacy
… I’ve never seen a more gut-wrenching indictment of the costs of criminalizing drugs.
March 1, 2019
Steve Erickson
Nashville Scene
At first, I feared that Schwarz was doing something worthy but obvious: showing how narcocorrido songs and movies make people rich by falsifying the horrific reality of the drug biz. But gradually you realize that things aren’t so simple.
May 17, 2018
John Powers
NPR’s Fresh Air
Narco Cultura is about a “disturbingly glorified conflict” that no one is paying attention to and how pop culture functions in society and in commerce. For people who care, it is a film not to be missed.
August 9, 2017
Sr. Rose Pacatte
National Catholic Reporter
Narco Cultura is a wake-up call to anyone who doesn’t understand the genesis of corrido music.
June 21, 2016 | Rating: B
Jared Mobarak
The Film Stage
However you come at it, it seems that the perpetual slaughter south of the border is an American export product, paid for and fine-tuned by American self-indulgence.
April 12, 2016
Michael Atkinson
In These Times…
Plot
To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco traffickers have become iconic outlaws and the new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto – a new form of the American Dream, fueled by the war on drugs. NARCO CULTURA looks at this explosive phenomenon from within; cycles of addiction to money, drugs and violence that are rapidly gaining strength on both sides of the US/Mexican border.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Nothing to add here about Narco Cultura.
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