rakontur

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via Total Film:

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Film Threat

“One of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction ever produced.”

Variety

“Compulsively watchable”

The Scotsman

“A remarkable documentary.”

The Miami Herald

“Disturbing, utterly absorbing”

Yahoo! Movies

“One of the most powerful docs I’ve ever seen.”

Glasgow Herald

“This is a striking fear that offers no easy answers.”

Orlando Weekly

“A politically and emotionally charged documentary.”

iO Film

“A harrowing and unnerving experience.”

Spiked

“A remarkable documentary.”

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GQ (UK)

“If you needed further proof that the documentaries currently coming out of America are better than the films being produced by Hollywood, look no further.”

BPM

“Not only does the film bristle with Scarface-esque machismo, violence and comeuppance, but it is intelligently and cogently presented as well.”

Variety

“A rogues gallery of flamboyant gangsters paint an anecdote-rich portrait of the drug trade”

XXL

“You know nothing about the M-I-Yayo until you’ve seen Cocaine Cowboys.”

Maxim

“Fast paced and more addictive than a cocaine/crack/meth cocktail.”

The Miami Herald

“genuinely engrossing — and horrifying”

New York Magazine

“Billy Corben’s often hilarious, exuberant documentary practically celebrates the bloodbath that was Miami’s cocaine heyday”

Reuters

“ As sensational as “Scarface” and a lot livelier than that “Miami Vice” movie”

MTV

“Bullets fly and dead bodies drop like whacked weeds in this startling documentary about the bad old days of the Miami drug trade. “

FIlm Threat

“it packs the furious momentum and dramatic punch of a riveting feature film”

Time Out New York

“a well-researched documentary charting the scary real-life crimes that made living in miami a nightmare”

New York Times

“ A hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970’s and 80’s, the movie overflows with cops and coroners, snitches and smugglers, reporters and importers.”

SouthFlorida.com

“Move over Miami Vice and Scarface — this is how it really happened.”“Move over Miami Vice and Scarface — this is how it really happened.”

The Onion

“Cocaine Cowboys is kinetic and absorbing, the documentary equivalent of Goodfellas”

Worcester Movies

“Scarface’ been REPLACED!”

Mass Appeal

“All you street entrepreneurs take notes — this is a classic.”

XXL - Noreaga Interview

“Miami’s New Jack City”

The Washington Post

“It pounds, it churns, it go-fast boats…”

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Raw Deal: A Question of Consent

Directed by Billy Corben

The sexually correct “no-means-no” ideology of contemporary dating takes on new meaning in Miami producers Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben’s politically and emotionally charged documentary, “Raw Deal: A Question of Consent.” The film explores a sordid night in February, 1999, when a group of Delta Chi frat boys at the University of Florida hired a pair of strippers for an alcohol-soaked after-pledge party. The next morning, Lisa Gier King ran from the frat house, alleging she had been raped. When police investigated, they found that the party boys had videotaped the evening’s “revelries.” The tape led to King’s arrest for making a false accusation. The result: a massive media outcry from victims and feminist advocates.

The extreme nature of what happened at the frat house that night makes the story difficult to tell. Director Corben edits the interview footage with finesse. When we are finally shown the contents of the “rape sequence” at length, it is not easy to watch. Rarely has sex looked so ugly.

The genuine creepiness of accused attacker Michael Yahraus, the way in which the Alachua County State Attorney’s office refused to cooperate with the filmmakers, the sliminess of Delta Chi pledge master Anthony Marzullo, and King’s wide-eyed insistence that she had been victimized all slant viewer sympathies in her direction. But should they?

This is a film that winds up chronicling the netherworld between consensual sex and rape. Perhaps unconsciously, “Raw Deal” plants the idea that our society might need another word for a physical act between two adults that isn’t quite rape but isn’t quite consenting sex either. And, for that, “Raw Deal” offers up a redeeming value.

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Cocaine Cowboys will hit theaters in the UK in November. Check out the British GQ review:

If you needed further proof that the documentaries currently coming out of America are better than the films being produced by Hollywood, look no further…

…Until Michael Moore’s Sicko reaches these shores, Cocaine Cowboys is the must-see documentary of the year.

Must-see documentary of the year If you needed further proof that the documentaries currently coming out of America are better than the films being produced by Hollywood, look no further. Cocaine Cowboys tells the story of the Miami drug wars in the late Seventies and early Eighties that inspired both Miami Vice and Scarface. In a matter of months, cocaine smugglers and dealers turned a sleepy retirement community into the centre of a $20bn business fed by Colombia’s Medillin cartel. The result of the influx of cocaine was to turn Miami into the most cash-rich city in the world, with banks and car dealerships opening up on every street corner. By the mid Eighties, Miami’s murder rate had tripled. The Cocaine Cowboys story is told primarily by former business partners Jon Pernell Roberts and Mickey Munday. It is the duo’s charisma that really binds the film together. Roberts, particularly, has more charm than Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell put together in the 2006 Miami Vice remake. Using vintage photographs and original news footage alongside interviews with the crooks, judges and cops, this is riveting for almost all of its 118 minute running time. The pace slows somewhat when the film turns its focus to the staggering violence that occurred post-glory years and devotes a little too much time to an interview with a hitman who is a little too proud of his “achievements”. On top of all of this, the film’s soundtrack was scored by none other than Jan Hammer (the man behind the infamous Miami Vice soundtrack) in a real masterstroke by the film-makers. Until Michael Moore’s Sicko reaches these shores, Cocaine Cowboys is the must-see documentary of the year. James Mullinger Directed by Billy Corben Starring Jon Roberts, Mickey Munday, Jorge “Rivi” Ayala Out: 23 November 2007

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Chris Gore of Film Threat Magazine was on G4’s Attack of the Show and reviewed Cocaine Cowboys, calling it, “one of the best documentaries of the past decade”:

Film Threat has been good to us over the years, proclaiming Raw Deal was, “one of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction ever produced.”

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COCAINE COWBOYS

Nick Stecher | February 12, 2007

You think Scarface was a bad ass? You’re wrong guy, ’cause he’s just an actor named Al who spent a couple hours a day putting on makeup and complaining how his latte was getting cold. You wanna know who’s a real bad ass? Watch Cocaine Cowboys, young lad. Witness the behind-the-scenes story of Miami and cocaine, two elements that combined in the ’70s to create one helluva Molotov cocktail. In fact, this documentary is such a no-brainer you wonder why no one’s done it yet.

The story’s arc basically starts with America’s burgeoning obsession with the devil’s dandruff, circa mid-’70s, as smugglers began switching from marijuana to the incredibly more profitable cocaine. Here the viewer is led through these halcyon years by two of the era’s pioneers: Mickey Munday and Jon Roberts. One of the major achievements of the doc is its access to the most prominent and notorious players from the era. Munday was the transportation—a MacGyver-type pilot with seemingly more brains than the rest of the motley crew combined. He outlines the tricks they came up with to skirt the cops, like shipping the coke in the trunks of cars they then towed (keeping the tow-driver clean). Or buying a $980,000 plane…in cash. Roberts was the playboy, the hustler who came up early distributing to the tune of almost $100 million in his tenure.

Then things get ugly. There’s so much cash piling in on Miami that the once-tame trade turns violent. Bodies begin piling up, and the shit hits the fan when a brazen hit is pulled off in daylight at the Dadeland Mall. Thus the “Cocaine Cowboys” were born—the name given to the AK-47-brandishing outlaws that began dropping more bodies in Miami than an armless gymnast. Now we’re introduced to Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, the infamous hitman for Griselda Blanco—the female mob boss behind the Dadeland Mall Massacre, and most of Miami’s bloodshed. The details from Rivi’s interviews are chilling, and the access to him—hearing the grisly details explained so candidly—is one of the untouchable strengths of the film.

“The most shocking thing for us was sitting down with Rivi,” explains director Billy Corben. “He was handsome, charming, well spoken. If he’d chosen a different career, he could’ve been the mayor of Miami. But then he’ll just start talking about the hits, the murder details, that was a real eye-opener…it’s crazy.”

Aside from the undeniably salacious and engaging content of the film, its production and execution are handled terrifically. Archival video sets the tone, and skilled motion graphics work transforms photos into visually arresting images. And the Jan Hammer-penned soundtrack is the perfect ambient touch. Not only does the film bristle with Scarface-esque machismo, violence and comeuppance, but it is intelligently and cogently presented as well. No surprise, the movie has blown up in the underground, and is quite likely the only documentary that’s ever been widely bootlegged in the Miami blackmarket. No joke—Miami rappers Trick Daddy and Pitbull are such fanatics of the film, they’ve taped segments on YouTube hailing its greatness.

“This wave of Cocaine Cowboys really came from a time of unrest in Columbia called La violencia—a 30-year civil war that tore the country apart,” explains Corben who, being a Miami native, shares a particular bond to the story. “They just imported that style, that culture of violence, to Miami. In Medellin, they’d just as soon spray a car with bullets, killing your entire family, than just collect money from you. It was about teaching lessons. And it was really what brought the whole house of cards down.”

“It’s funny—people thought that Scarface was overblown, violence-wise. But in reality, what was going on in Miami was ten times worse,” says Corben. Although a dubious statement, it’s infinitely more believable after viewing Cowboys. “They had to downplay the violence in Scarface, ’cause no one would’ve believed what was really going on.”

So the next time you find yourself in a toilet stall bumping out poodle legs onto a toilet paper dispenser, you can turn to that dazed stripper and say, “You got any idea how this whole crazy thing started, Tiffanii?” Who knows, maybe dropping a little knowledge will get you somewhere.

Ok, probably not. But it still beats the hell outta March of the Penguins.

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