Gael García Bernal is uninhibited in the ring in director Roger Ross Williams' sports drama about a gay man who found expression and acceptance as a luchador.
in the title role, and it’s an intimate portrait of the man behind the flamboyant exterior, who dove into the hate and turned it into love.
The encounter with Big Beltran is the spark of inspiration that changes Saúl’s fledgling wrestling career. A gay man living with his mother, Yocasta , in his native El Paso, he decides rather than to mask himself in the ring, he’ll lean into the negative things people say about him, and embrace the queer “exotico” identity. Exoticos, functioning as the “heels” in lucha libre wrestling, never win, but they can be stars, as Big Beltran demonstrates.
But “Cassandro” is less a sports movie than a gritty sketch of a unique American character. His triumphs are compressed in montage or alluded to in conversation, Williams chooses to spend more time in Saúl’s personal life, in his close relationship with his mother and with his closeted boyfriend, Gerardo . His birth and romantic life are ironic mirror images: Saúl is the product of an extra-marital affair, and Gerardo is married with kids.
Williams resists the tropes of the traditional biopic, which at times leaves us wanting more. Cassandro’s maximalist image invites a big, outlandish treatment, but Williams keeps the tone quiet and grounded, centering García Bernal’s moving performance and keeping the focus on Saúl, the real person behind the celebrity.
It’s a deeply touching and very American story about the way we all attempt to make oneself over, turning the things that seem to be vulnerabilities into strengths. “Cassandro” is a film that invites us to consider the hearts and bodies behind the swagger and sequins, and about the true grit that it requires to be an original.R, for language, drug use and sexual content
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