Title: Mexico 86
MPA Rating: TV-MA
Director: Gabriel Ripstein
Starring: Diego Luna, Karla Souza, Memo Villegas
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
What It Is: Colombia, now a beautiful country in South America, but back in the 1980s something sinister was stewing. The cartels were taking over and violence was sadly doing the same. Because of this the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) decides it needs to move its quadrennial celebration of world football. Now a battle between the 1970 host Mexico and the future (1994) host the United States is occurring. Mexico has enlisted the relative unknown Martin De La Torre (Luna) to make this happen.
What We Think: This is…not too shabby. I enjoyed Luna in this role and his charisma is unmistakable here. This entire movie falls apart without him standing out. This being the case, it is also the film’s biggest weakness. There’s no consistency in the narrative. There’s no consistency amongst the writing here. Some of it is really good while at other times it all feels disjointed and janky. As a football fan this story is one I’m not so sure we really needed to be told. We got it and it’s perfectly at home on Netflix. Home to so much mediocrity. A place that proves that you can have too much of something and that can lead to a dip in quality.
Our Grade: C, Nah. Unless you’re a fan of footie or happen to be Mexican (this goes double if you’re a Mexican footie fan) then this is something for you and very specifically you. Outside of that there’s plenty of other things you can watch on Netflix. I do appreciate that the film was made solely in Spanish, staying authentic to the film being a wholly Mexican experience. FIFA’s corruption is never-ending and it seems to me that shining a light on that is one thing that’s very positive about this film. It’s a mild skip.
