EL Hombre Bufalo follows Eric, a journalist in Mexico who stops writing after receiving threats based on his reporting. A friend talks him into investigating people getting their land taken from them. As he continues down this path, he learns more and more about the legend of El Hombre Bufalo, The Buffalo Man, and that it might be more than local superstition.

The filmmakers call this a hybrid narrative film. In the beginning, I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but by the end, I would be hard pressed to call it anything else. Structured in a way like a documentary, including interviews and dramatic reenactments. Interlaced are scenes that experiment with lighting and sound to varying degree of success. Though I will say, if you have issues with photosensitivity some areas could be problematic.

The problem is that the film isn’t sure what story it wants to tell. Does it want to focus on the blight of locals losing their land? Or maybe dive more into the story of The Buffalo Man? Or even the danger that reporters face in Mexico? With a brisk runtime of just over an hour, it can be tough to flush out any one of these points, let alone all three.

One thing that stands out is the acting. I forgot that I wasn’t watching a documentary at points. It speaks to the strength of the cast as they blended with no one out shining anyone. Eric (Raúl Briones) as the lead does well as his role is very understated and adds to the realistic feel of this film. There weren’t any cast members that stood out in a negative way.

One of the main issues that EL Hombre Bufalo faces is that the narrative is pulled in so many directions and it suffers for it. The story ultimately becomes a chore to get through as it all seems so aimless. The title subject makes mostly a few cameos throughout, in fact, if The Buffalo Man wasn’t even in it, you wouldn’t notice. The same can be said for any of the threads. Which goes to show you just how little it all matters.

From a technical standpoint, the movie has a gritty feel about it. The scenes were well lit and nicely shot. It uses its limited locations well. Audio was generally clear and easy to hear. All this isn’t helped with rough edits and cobbled together storytelling.

None of this is to say that EL Hombre Bufalo is bad. There are important messages throughout, even if they are lost on the viewer due to the pacing and structure. The lore behind The Buffalo Man is incredibly fascinating, its just a shame that I had to elsewhere to learn anything more than the absolute minimum on it. The same can be said about the ongoing issues of journalist safety in Mexico. This film succeeds in having you start thinking about these topics, it’s just a shame that it doesn’t have anything to say.

5 out of 10