A story about a boy deciding whether to enter the criminal underworld or become a student that lacks enough passion and anger to really hit home

Here is a Mexican crime drama without the crime – or without much of it, taking place chiefly on the margins of serious violence. It is the coming-of-age story of a teenage boy whose dad was a sicario, or cartel killer, in the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán in southern Mexico. Young Sujo (Kevin Aguilar) is at primary school when his father is brutally killed and the killers come looking for the little boy, fearing he will grow up to avenge his dad’s death. Sujo takes refuge at the remote shack belonging to his watchful aunt Nemesia (Yadira Pérez); she becomes his protective family, along with his other aunt Rosalia (Karla Garrido) and his cousins Jai (Alexis Varela) and Jeremy (Jairo Hernandez). Sujo grows to...