Aftermath services llc phone numbers11/17/2023 ![]() Saúl came out as gay when he was a teenager and was rejected by his father, a distant presence in his life to begin with. Some of the details are drawn from the real Saúl's background, which was chronicled in the 2018 documentary Cassandro, the Exótico! Saúl loves his new persona, in part because the aggressively showy Cassandro allows him to perform his queerness in ways that he's had to repress for much of his life. And after a tough first bout, he starts to win over the crowd, which actually likes seeing the exótico win for a change. He weaponizes his speed, his lithe physique and his flirtatious charm, disarming his opponents and his onlookers. ![]() The movie shows us how, in lucha libre culture, queer-coded performance and rampant homophobia exist side-by-side.īut Cassandro soon makes clear that he's not just a fall guy or an object of ridicule. When Saúl first steps into the ring as his new exótico persona, Cassandro, he receives plenty of anti-gay slurs from the crowd. His opening comes when his coach, played by Roberta Colindrez, encourages him to consider becoming an exótico, a luchador who performs in drag. He's scrawnier than most fighters, and thus often gets cast as the runt - and the runt, of course, never wins.īut Saúl wants to win, and to make a name for himself. He's a Mexican American wrestler from El Paso who comes to Ciudad Juárez for the fights. Saúl is an outsider, and not just because he's gay. ![]() Our guide to this world is Saúl Armendáriz, a real-life lucha libre queer pioneer, wonderfully played here as a scrappy up-and-comer by Gael García Bernal. The outcome may be predetermined, but there's still real drama in this mix of brutal sport and choreographed ballet. They sport bright-colored masks, skin-tight costumes and menacing monikers like "the Executioner of Tijuana." They smash each other over the head with chairs or guitars while onlookers cheer and jeer from the sidelines. It begins in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez, where hulking wrestlers, or luchadores, clobber each other in the ring. If you, like me, know little about the gaudily theatrical style of professional wrestling known as lucha libre, the new movie Cassandro offers a vivid crash course - emphasis on the crash. Gael García Bernal and El Hijo del Santo in Cassandro.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |