Cassandro
Gael García Bernal delights with his portrayal of a celebrated gay Mexican wrestler in this feel-good drama.
Gael García Bernal
Image courtesy of Amazon
The life of the Mexican wrestler Saúl Armendáriz has certainly been a colourful one - sufficiently so to have led to three films being made about him. In 2020 I saw the French documentary about his life made by Marie Losier under the title Cassandro, The Exotico! and welcomed her endeavour to portray the career of this exponent of lucha libre wrestling. He had appeared early on as an exótico, one of those men who entered the ring dressed in drag and were expected to be entertaining clown-like losers. But Cassandro, as he named himself, was one gay man who was determined to be a winning exótico and bravely achieved that aim daring to discard the mask worn by luchadores and earning the enthusiastic support of the audience. Sympathetic as Losier’s film was, I felt that it could have gone deeper into his life in several ways (the film virtually ignored his private life save for his relationship with his parents, failed to ask if his religious beliefs had led to any conflict in himself over his sexuality and indicated - but without any real investigation of it - the conflict between his ego and his recognition that he had reached an age when it would be sensible to retire).
When I heard that the African-American director Roger Ross Williams, previously noted for much television work and for his cinema documentary Life, Animated which became a worthy award winner in 2017, was the man behind this new biopic starring Gael García Bernal I thought it likely that it would fill some of the gaps left by Marie Losier’s film. But in the event that is not the kind of film that is on offer here. It was in fact Williams who got in first with a short documentary about Cassandro of which I was previously unaware, 2016’s The Man Without a Mask, and there is no doubt at all about his admiration for Saúl Armendáriz and his wish to make a feature film praising him and bringing knowledge of him to a wider audience. What one quickly recognises, however, is that Cassandro is a piece of popular cinema designed as a feel-good movie and not the in-depth study that it might have been.
Judged on its chosen level, Cassandro proves to be a film that appeals and not least because of the way in which Bernal plays Saúl. He and Williams are clearly at one in rejecting the idea of telling his story in a way that makes for specifically camp appeal. While the costumes worn by Cassandro when he dons drag to wrestle are definitely a feature of the film, the portrait of Saúl himself is a wholly convincing gay characterisation that deliberately avoids any sense of stereotypical effeminacy. Bernal’s performance is all the more engaging because he refuses to play up the role and Perla De La Rosa as the mother who totally accepts her son’s homosexuality partners him beautifully in scenes of real warmth.
But, if that makes the film attractive, the fact remains that even when judged as a work of feel-good appeal Cassandro has a screenplay that could easily have been improved. One example of this concerns the role of Sabrina played by Roberta Colindrez. She is well cast and this woman, a wrestler herself but one who becomes Cassandro’s trainer, comes across as a strong character. Nevertheless she rather fades out which is a shame and, similarly, although Saúl is given a married lover played by Raúl Castillo (someone who may or may not be taken from real life) their relationship registers less strongly than it should. Furthermore, even for a film that seeks to be upbeat there is a sense that when depicting the way in which Cassandro wins over audiences it makes it all look too easy (in reality Saúl was sufficiently conflicted to attempt suicide during the period portrayed in the film but you would never guess it here). Even so, one can accept the decision to make this a tale that seeks to portray Cassandro’s successful bid to win popularity as a gay wrestler without taking a lengthier and more detailed view of his life. Many audiences will find Cassandro engaging and Bernal’s performance is so spot-on that he has no difficulty in selling the movie.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Roberta Colindrez, Perla De La Rosa, Joaquín Cosio, Raúl Castillo, Ei Hijo del Santo, Robert Salas, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Murder Clown, Ronald Gonzales-Trujillo, Sofia Felix.
Dir Roger Ross Williams, Pro Gerardo Gatica, David Bloomfield, Ted Hope and Julie Goldman, Screenplay David Teague and Roger Ross Williams, Ph Matías Penanchino, Pro Des J.C. Molina, Ed Affonso Goncalves, Sabine Hoffman and Yibrán Asuad, Music Marcelo Zarvos, Costumes Mariestela Fernández.
La Corriente del Golfo/Escape Artists/Grand Illusion Films/Double Hope Films/Motto Pictures-Met Film Distribution.
107 mins. Mexico/USA. 2023. US and UK Rel: 15 September 2023. Cert. 15.
