Where I Watched It: Amazon

English Audio Description provided By: Media Access Group

Narrated By: Brianna Leon

I’m not a wrestling guy. I can name the wrestlers who have crossed over into film, but beyond that, I don’t watch any wrestling. That also goes for the Luchadors. I barely understand conceptually what the WWE is going for, and the extent of my knowledge of these masked Mexican wrestlers is limited to Nacho Libre.

So, perhaps the biopic about a Mexican icon wasn’t aimed at me. It’s quite possible I slid into the wrong film. But, one thing seems to always happen, and that’s Gael Garcia Bernal delivering an awards worthy performance for which he will not dominate awards season. Bernal is perpetually overlooked, and long overdue for a nomination, whether it be for Y Tu Mama También, The Crime Of Father Amaro, or The motorcycle Diaries, he’s really consistent. And unleashing the true story of an openly gay and proud luchador adds one more shoulda, woulda, coulda, to the list of roles he’ll be passed over for.

Not only is Cassandro a wrestling icon, but he’s also a LGBT groundbreaking one, wrestling as an Exotic luchador. usually, they lose, but he is determined to flip the script and win. no matter what homophobic slurs come from the audience, he seems undeterred, and has support from so many along the way. one of the best things about the film is that as his popularity grows, it affords him the opportunity to do things he’s been wanting to do, like confront his father.

The supporting cast is good, but most of them have short amounts of screentime, including Bad Bunny, and also Raul Castillo, who played an oddly similar role just last year.

The audio description did a great job of not just describing the world around the legend, and his terrific and acrobatic abilities in the ring, but also the care he puts into his costumes, and the imagery he draws from. I was so impressed by Bernal’s agility on screen simply by the high difficulty of what was being asked of him on screen. he had to have trained for a long time to pull this off.

It’s a little film that surprised me. While i can’t speak to how well it represented someone I didn’t know existed, in a sport I don’t watch, the film followed the usual structure and portrayed an LGBT icon.

Final Grade: A-