Review

One of New York crime lore’s most influential and flamboyant gangsters, Nicky Barnes was one of the principal players in the seventies heroin catastrophe. Ever a proud, defensive man, Marc Levin’s doc lets Barnes tell his story and philosophize on the art of the deal. The results are sometimes persuasive (“In powder, you gotta be vicious”) and sometimes sadly comical (“They know not who they fucketh with”), but always fascinating.