Jaime García appears to be the quintessential macho Mariachi. With a life full of women, alcohol and music, his evenings are spent as a charming, talented troubadour at local watering holes and his days on the ranch, blissfully caring for his beloved horses. But despite his wild tales and bawdy persona, a sense of weariness slowly surfaces in the mundane in-between moments of Jaime’s everyday existence. Beneath the persuasive, magnetic confidence lies a man who struggles to maintain a relationship with his frequently estranged young daughter and her stringent, religious mother and most imperatively, to live a healthy life as an HIV-positive man. In Jose Villalobos’ remarkable debut film, he profiles Jaime over the course of five years. Through vivid tableaux and stylized perspectives of the two very different sides of Jaime’s existence, Villalobos paints a beautifully unique and emotional portrait of a man divided.

—Liza Domnitz

Jose Villalobos Romero