"Cassandro" Movie Review

“Cassandro” details the true story of a Mexican wrestler who changed the perception of LGBTQ+ athletes and performers forever.

Saúl Armendáriz (Gael García Bernal) starts training amateur lucha libre and is always set up to lose his matches. He’s also picked on because of his size, and the other luchadors use language around him that’s extremely offensive because of his sexuality, but Armendaríz doesn’t let them know it bothers him.

He lives at home with his single mother, Yocasta (Perla De La Rosa), and the two are very close, but Yocasta worries about her son’s safety both as a luchador and as a gay man.

Armendraíz, tired of losing matches, meets Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez), a luchador and trainer who offers to help Armendraíz physically and get him booked for bigger matches.

Sabrina suggests that Armendraíz take on an “exótico” character – that of a man dressing in feminine costumes, wearing makeup or putting on an overall feminine gimmick to be ridiculed by the audience. Exóticos typically aren’t fan favorites and aren’t set up to win, so he’s hostile at first but accepts.

Armendraíz takes on the name “Cassandro” and gains confidence performing under the exótico character.

One day at a diner, Yocasta and Cassandro spot another luchador, Gerardo (Raúl Castillo), with his wife and kids, and Yocasta begs to say hello to him, much to Cassandro’s disdain.

Audiences soon find out that Cassandro and Gerardo have been in a secret relationship, and while Cassandro takes most of the ridicule for being gay, Gerardo never hears a word of it from the other luchadors because they don’t know.

Cassandro catches the eye of Lorenzo (Joaquín Cosío), who begins to book him for bigger matches. As Cassandro’s popularity grows, so does the number of people who throw insults at him.

Throughout the film, Cassandro struggles with the relationship he once had with his father, who introduced him to lucha libre as a child.

Yocasta and Cassandro continually watch his father’s softball game from afar but never get out of the car to confront him, refusing to break the wall that was put up between them.

This drives Yocasta mad, and she overdoses on medication. Cassandro is unable to say goodbye to her, which haunts him throughout the rest of the film.

He decides to dedicate his career to her and his next big match: a fight against El Hijo de Santo.

Though he loses to El Hijo de Santo, the massive viewership and Cassandro’s resilience makes his audience stronger, and the world starts to see los exóticos in a different light thanks to Cassandro’s high-flying skills and charm.

Toward the end of the film, Cassandro and his father, Eduardo (Robert Salas), sit down to discuss their strained relationship. Cassandro realizes he didn’t need his father then and doesn’t need him now and walks away from him.

This was a beautifully shot biopic about a huge figure in lucha libre.

The story itself was incredible: somebody who was marginalized and ridiculed in their community was able to turn the tides and turn hardship into success.

This was Bernal’s best performance by far, and he embodied Cassandro beautifully.

Though a side character, the film was able to cast Bad Bunny as Felipe, Lorenzo’s assistant. While also being one of the most popular artists in the world, he’s also a professional wrestler, most recently, facing former Puerto Rican Damian Priest at WWE’s “Backlash,” defeating Priest in their home country.

Additionally, El Hijo de Santo played himself in the film, so there was somebody with a firsthand account of events on set to relay the story accurately while adding Hollywood flair.

“Cassandro” is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Adrianna Gallucci is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email amg7989@psu.edu.