Rating: R | Runtime: 107 minutes
Release Date: September 15th, 2023 (USA) / September 20th, 2023 (Mexico)
Studio: Amazon Prime Video
Director(s): Roger Ross Williams
Writer(s): David Teague & Roger Ross Williams

They don’t let Exóticos win.

An entertaining and inspiring true life story with a fantastic lead performance from Gael García Bernal, Cassandro distills the life of Sául Armendáriz down to a passion to be seen. By the other luchadors who dismiss him as a runt before denigrating him as an exotico. By a public quick to see him as a foil in the world of lucha libre rather than a hero. By the father who abandoned him at fifteen when he came out as gay.

Director Roger Ross Williams and co-writer David Teague‘s film isn’t flashy or necessarily narratively complex beyond that simple desire, but it doesn’t have to be for success. It’s a tribute meant to shine a light on a queer icon and the journey he took to find his identity (Bernal does well to show that Cassandro is less a performance and more a release for Sául to be his truest, most confident self) and empower countless fans to follow. Armendáriz refuses to hide en route to excelling in a toxically masculine world without a shred of shame.

While not the deepest of films, this crowd pleaser hits all the right emotional beats to prop Sául up and establish the complex and often unfair world in which he ascends against all odds. Raúl Castillo and Roberta Colindrez are more sounding boards than three-dimensional characters in their own right, but both are very good. And Perla De La Rosa as Sául’s mother and number one fan is excellent in the meatiest role outside of Bernal. This mother and son  are thick as thieves, always living for each other and regretting nothing.

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Gael García Bernal and Perla De La Rosa in CASSANDRO; Photo by Alejandro Lopez Pineda, courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.