Critic Reviews

Incisively intimate, it's a small but stirring snapshot of a gifted, hopelessly lonely soul.

What begins as a quirky portrait of the artist as a gringo mariachi troubadour proves to be a telling study of a lost soul whose palpable passion for his music acts as a surrogate for more meaningful human contact.

First-timer Naar both fails to convince us of his subject's musical genius and gives the impression he's leaving out important details.

It’s easy to see what drew filmmaker Aaron I. Naar to his eponymous subject in Mateo, but it’s almost impossible to share his enthusiasm or even feel much sympathy for a figure who, for a good chunk of this sluggish yet disconcerting documentary, comes across as a genuinely creepy person.