It is impossible to be Mexican and not have contact –whether distant or close– with wrestling. Even though I’m not a fan, it’s a part of our culture. As undeniable as the Day of the Dead, The guy from 8 and that recording that announces that “mattresses, drums, refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, microwaves, or something made of old iron that they sell is being bought.” The stories of, about and starring fighters have been a permanent fixture in our cinematography and television since its inception. It is curious then, that Cassandroa film about one of the most famous figures in Mexican wrestling, has been directed by an American: Roger Ross Williams (the first African-American to win an Oscar, for the short film Music by Prudence), in his fiction feature film debut.
The film tells the story of life (it is a biopic in shape, with all that that entails) by Saúl Armendáriz, «Cassandro, el exótico». He, at the end of the 80s and in the 90s, revolutionized not only the struggles in Mexico, but also the image that existed of “the exotics.” For those who don’t know, this is a subgroup of wrestlers who wore drag in the ring.
The nationality of the director, although it should not be decisive (as the French filmmaker Marie Losier makes clear in her 2018 documentary Cassandro, The Exotico!), in this fictionalized version of the fighter’s life, it is a possible factor that plays against the film. Although the film works for the most part, its staging falls into some of the commonplaces that we usually see in Hollywood cinema when it talks about Latin America.
Cassandro movie review
Although the director – who in 2016 made the short documentary The Man Without a Mask, about Cassandro– he was already very familiar with the story, his foreign gaze peeks out at times. Especially when he has to portray the stereotypical figures that populate the world of fighting: the corrupt promoter, the holy and self-sacrificing mother…
Of course, Gael García Bernal (who, in addition to starring, produces through his company La Corriente del Golfo) surely helped to qualify some of the decisions that could have been more problematic. Nonetheless (and, again, largely thanks to the work of the Mexican actor) the film is an inspiring story of triumph over adversity.
Staying out of any too dark episodes in the life of its main subject and told with great reverence towards him, Cassandro it triumphs as a harmless, funny and emotional film. Its arrival on Amazon Prime Video later in the year (as long as it receives proper marketing treatment) will surely be greeted with applause and the satisfaction of at least being able to give a proper place in the collective imagination to a discipline that has always been ignored by the elites of the national high culture.
Cassandro It’s coming to Amazon Prime Video sometime in 2023.
J. Ivan Morales Writer, film director and editorial director at his friendly neighbor film publication, Cine PREMIERE. He will never give up hope for a second season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Firefly.
