I wasn’t familiar with the luchador Cassandro before seeing the new movie Cassandro, and I didn’t actually even learn he was a real person until partway through, although when I did, I was kind of relieved, because I knew things would turn out ok for him. And they turn out better than ok, due very much to the remarkable person he is.
The wrestler is a gay man who performs as an “exótico,” a kind of lucha libre character who adopts feminine characteristics, sort of like wrestling in drag. Gael García Bernal stars as Cassandro, who begins the movie wrestling in the late 1980s as a much more traditional character but who soon realizes he needs another approach. He becomes Cassandro, taking his name from the title of a telenovela, and creating a look that’s something like what you might see if Liberace had tried wrestling. He seems to revel in the cartoonishness of the character, which must have been difficult for him given exóticos appear to be there to be ridiculed, as the crowd hurls homophobic slurs at him. But the thing about Cassandro is that he’s a boisterous and accomplished showman, and he wins over the crowd simply through his irresistible theatrics. Exóticos are there to lose to the more “manly” masked luchadores, but Cassandro decides it’s time for a change—it’s time for an exótico to win.
The story is delightful and inspiring, as Cassandro really does become an icon, and one who eventually helps gay kids be more accepting of themselves in a difficult world. And García Bernal shows what a showman he is, too, jumping full-on into Cassandro both as a performer and as a person. We believe Cassandro could do what he does because of the gusto of the actor’s portrayal, and we also see Cassandro’s pain as he deals with a father who abandoned him because of his sexuality, and a romantic partner who insists on keeping their relationship a secret. One scene at a bar between Cassandro and his boyfriend is stunning as we see García Bernal’s face just right on the edge of barely keeping things together while still keeping things together.
The movie is imperfect as a movie, the pacing is often strange, and late in the film we end up with what just seems like a series of scenes rather than the natural next step in a narrative. But this is the kind of movie where you just say, “who cares,” because those things ultimately don’t matter. This is a beautiful performance depicting a fascinating man who, it appears, really did change some things.
Cassandro is on Amazon Prime Video September 22nd.
