Mateo

A gold-plated voice trapped inside a hapless dreamer tries to make the big time.

You don't expect scrawny, strawberry blond Matthew Stoneman to blow you away with a falsetto love song, in perfect Spanish to boot. But that's his hook and it might finally make him a star in this thoroughly fun chronicle of how "America's first gringo mariachi singer" tries to shake his own gimmick and achieve true greatness. A thief with a heart and a voice of gold, he wound up in prison, where he learned Spanish and was bewitched by Cuban music. Now, the lovable crooner invests every honest nickel he earns playing L.A.'s streets into trips to Cuba. But what's he really after -- cheap access to amazing studio musicians, sun-filled fantasies or the comfort of its women? With a dizzyingly beautiful soundtrack of his songs as a backdrop, an unexpected side to Matthew's artistic life slowly emerges in this irresistible ode to all the dreaming and hard work it takes to make it.