In the late 1980s, gay wrestler Saúl Armendáriz lives in El Paso, Texas with his mother, regularly crossing the border to Ciudad Juárez to participate in lucha libre wrestling matches. He begins wrestling as 'El Topo' until he meets a new trainer, Sabrina, who inspires him to compete as an exótico and trains him to be a winner within this role. He develops the identity of 'Cassandro' and begins to confront elements of his identity and explore his personal relationships whilst gaining a reputation for himself within lucha libre. [3][4]
In July 2020, Gael García Bernal joined the cast of the film, with Roger Ross Williams set to direct from a screenplay he wrote alongside David Teague, with Amazon Studios in negotiations to distribute.[5] They wrote the screenplay over the course of several years.[6]Cassandro is Williams' first narrative film.[4] He previously told Cassandro's story in his 2016 documentary short The Man Without a Mask.[7] In June 2021, Roberta Colindrez and Bad Bunny joined the cast of the film, with Amazon Studios officially set to distribute. The studio would later switch it to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film upon release following the formation of Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.[8][9]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 137 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Gael García Bernal steals hearts as the charismatic Cassandro in this feel-good biopic about a wrestler that triumphs in the macho world of Lucha Libre while embracing his true self."[15]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[16]
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film an "entertaining biopic, which doubles as a gorgeous depiction of mother-son love and an exhilarating exploration of fearless queer identity in a macho environment," adding, "Gael García Bernal nails his best role in years, giving a performance steeped in cheeky humor, resilience and radical self-belief."[3]
Carlos Aguilar of Indiewire rated the film a B+, writing, "'Cassandro' balances the triumphant exaltation of Arbendáriz's singular evolution as a trailblazer who didn't set out to become one, with the obvious, still not entirely eliminated bigotry that made his trajectory so significant and groundbreaking in the first place."[4]
Ross Bonaime of Collider wrote that the film "is both riveting and often touching, and Bernal gives quite possibly his best performance in this beautiful story of finding yourself and becoming who you were always supposed to be."[17]
