The two main focal points of the movie are Edgar Quintero of the narcocorrido band Bukanas de Culiacán and crime scene investigator Richi Soto.
[8] Writing for the National Catholic Reporter, Sr. Rose Pacatte wrote "Narco Cultura is about a "disturbingly glorified conflict" that no one is paying attention to and how pop culture functions in society and in commerce.
[9] Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor called the documentary as "powerful", adding that the film "gets inside the world of two men who, in very different ways, inhabit this horror".
[11] Following its screening at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter said "This issue-based journalism piece yields diminishing returns the deeper it digs".
[13] Geoff Berkshire of Variety praised the film for being an "eye-opening examination" and for "its unsettling pop-culture side effects", calling Narco Cultura "overwhelming [and] absorbing".