Cassandro is the actual proof that Gael García Bernal clearly is aware of how to decide on the perfect film roles. His closing spin in award-winning director Roger Ross Williams’ characteristic debut, which had its world premiere this 12 months Sundance Film Festivalsymbolizes a profession that has been equal elements entertaining and chameleonic since he burst onto the scene in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros in 2000.
In Cassandro, García Bernal is Saúl, a homosexual luchador in Juárez, Mexico, who enjoys the mildest of successes as El Topo, a masked character whose solely job within the ring is to lose. While it is a function that enables Saúl to do what he loves greater than something – wrestling, that’s, entertaining – he is bored with being the loser. To transfer up within the lucha libre scene, he hires Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez) as his new coach. She proposes that Saúl play the a part of the exótico, an unmasked, surprisingly coded and flamboyant function designed to incite hatred within the public.
Again, nevertheless, the exótico is rarely meant to win a match. That mentioned, when Saúl makes his debut as Cassandro, in all his fabulous leopard-print glory, audiences can not help however obsess over him. Soon his star begins to rise and Cassandro adjustments the principles of the sport, however his new discovered fame threatens his relationship along with his mom (Perla De La Rosa) and his secret lover (Raúl Castillo).
An ideal efficiency by Gael García Bernal
Of the various Gael García Bernal motion pictures on the market, Cassandro presents the actor probably the most emotionally complicated roles of his profession. It’s basically a two-in-one biopic of kinds: on the one hand, there’s the extra self-contained Saúl, who lives in a time and place the place alternatives for love, success, and mobility aren’t essentially as accessible as a result of he is homosexual. ; and then again, there’s Cassandro, Saúl’s struggling alter ego, who exudes the boldness and power he craves outdoors the ring, firmly on the intersection of masculinity and femininity. Deftly strolling the tightrope between the 2, García Bernal presents us with a person who’s damage however full of affection on the identical time, determined for change however unaware of his potentialities, and above all is aware of that he deserves a full life however is somewhat afraid to take that step.
Indeed, Williams takes a deeply human strategy Cassandro, utilizing Saúl’s expertise to show the inherent paradoxes in wrestling traditions with out, extra importantly, risking exploitation or ridicule. Here DP Matías Penachino’s lens is essential, as he takes us behind the scenes into the room the place the wrestlers come into costume – paying homage to a grittier, extra subdued model of The Werk Room in RuPaul’s Drag Race – and within the ring, the place we bear witness to the artifice of the matches. Despite the character of the game, there may be nothing stage-like about it Cassandro, the hand-held digital camera work retains us grounded in Saúl’s story. Between close-ups and centered framing, Saúl at all times takes heart stage.
Naturally, Cassandro would not be what it’s with out the attractive work of costume designer Mariestela Fernández, who designs a wardrobe that displays the Saúl/Cassandro duality. For Cassandro’s outfits specifically, there’s an ideal stability between extravagant and otherworldly (as a result of that is who he’s), and, as we see him repurposing his mother’s garments, grounded and improvised. After all, Cassandro is a self-made man, working towards the percentages, rising above custom and, like many unusual individuals all through historical past, forging his personal path in a world that attempted to pigeonhole him.
Cassandro has simply completed its run on the Sundance Film Festival and is anticipated to stream on Prime Video later this 12 months.
