Cassandro offers an exciting glimpse at Bad Bunny’s acting future
thefader.comCassandro tells a larger-than-life true story in the most grounded way possible. Gael García Bernal plays Saúl Armendáriz, an amateur wrestler who, struggling to make a breakthrough on the local scene, reinvents himself as an “exótico.” The role of the exótico in 1980s Mexico was to act flamboyant, dress even more so, and to lose to the muscle-bound hulks they stepped into the ring with.
Cassandro was different, though. He was openly gay and wrestled in a drag-inspired costume, matching his elbow pads with a pop of red lipstick.
The “Liberace of lucha libre” as he describes himself in the film, Cassandro was a rare queer presence in the macho world of sports entertainment and captured the attention of the fans.
He broke new ground when he was invited to wrestle El Hijo del Santo, one of Mexican wrestling’s biggest names, live on TV. This telling of the story feels intentionally small, with director Roger Ross Williams favoring a tight aspect ratio and shallow focus to capture the action both in and out of the ring.
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