Synopsis

Romántico is a documentary about Mexican musician Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, who returns home to his beloved daughters after years spent playing San Francisco’s taquerías and hipster joints. But once Carmelo arrives in his hometown, he finds himself immediately confronted with the struggles that led to his first border crossing. Despite working the mariachi circuit (weddings, funerals, quinceañeras) and at bars that cater to prostitutes and their clients, Sánchez soon realizes he can’t adequately support his family and plots a return to the U.S. At the age of 60, another border crossing begins to seem absurd, but Carmelo has not given up...

Critical response

New York Newsday Romantico is visual poetry on the run… And, as any work of art does when it’s successful,
improves our perceptions of the world.”"

Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

offered in 2006 that Romántico might be the documentary of the year, in that its "sensitively detailed surveillance of one man's personal misfortune" illuminates a national crisis. They favorably compared it with Carlos Reygadas

Carlos Reygadas

Carlos Reygadas is a Mexican filmmaker known for his three films Batalla en el Cielo, Japón and Silent Light . After Batalla en el Cielo, he was known for his raw depiction of sex in his films and the use of old or ugly-seeming characters...

' Battle in Heaven in that both films deal with the same social circle and maintain a "vigilant aesthetic". In revisiting the film in 2010, they offered that the film was a "well-done character study" that could teach "a lot about how someone else thinks and experiences the world."

The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

wrote that Romántico was "a sympathetic portrait of Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, an illegal Mexican immigrant living in San Francisco who, after scuffling for three years as a mariachi

Mariachi

Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...

 musician, returns home to care for his ailing mother." They found the film to be representative of the stories of "countless illegal immigrants" who are a "struggling shadow population that is all but invisible in the United States."

Film Threat

Film Threat

Film Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...

made note that the film was originally to be about the life of two immigrant musicians in San Francisco, but due to Carmelo Muñiz Sanchez deciding to return home to Mexico during the filming, the film "evolved into a richly observed slice of life tale about a man returning home".

Awards and nominations

• 2005, nominated for 'Grand Jury Prize' for best documentary at Sundance Film Festival
  Sundance Film Festival
  The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
  
  
• 2006, nominated for Independent Spirit Award for best documentary at Independent Spirit Awards
  Independent Spirit Awards
  The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
  
  
• 2006, nominated for 'Truer Than Fiction Award' at Independent Spirit Awards
  Independent Spirit Awards
  The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...