5 Exciting Movies by Mexican Filmmakers to Watch Right Now

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with this watch list

Claudia Puig,

AARP

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En español

Published May 03, 2023

/ Updated September 11, 2024

Gael Garcia Bernal waves to the crowd under the lights in the film Cassandro

Gael Garcia Bernal in "Cassandro."

Amazon Prime Video

It’s always a good time to watch terrific films focused on fascinating Mexicans and Mexican Americans, but Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) is a particularly great time. In that triumphal spirit, here are five terrific films focused on Mexicans and Mexican Americans. These cinco para el cinco are streaming now.

Totem (2023)

It’s impossible not to be captivated by all that unspools in this soulful and impeccably textured masterwork by director Lila Aviles, whose first feature was 2018’s excellent The Chambermaid. With her intimate approach and sharp eye for detail, Aviles sets her ensemble piece over the course of a single chaotic day. Watchful 7-year-old Sol (Naima Senties) tries to make sense of everything going on, especially at her father’s surprise birthday party attended by her loving, multigenerational family. The result is a vibrant and luminous portrait of love and grief. Even when it deals with death, it pulses with life-affirming joy.

Watch it: on Prime Video

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Cassandro (2023)

You can just imagine the pitch meeting. Veteran documentarian Roger Ross Williams (The 1619 Project) sells his concept to the studio thus: “Think the Liberace of Lucha Libre [Mexican wrestling].” But there’s more. In one of the best performances in an impressive career, Gael Garcia Bernal plays Saul Armendariz, a gay amateur wrestler who triumphs as a trailblazer in the macho wrestling world, and in the process embraces his true self. Bernal is charisma incarnate as he throws himself into the role. Williams profiled Armendariz for an Amazon series, and makes an assured debut here in narrative storytelling. Warmly engaging, the story manages to be a crowd-pleaser without resorting to easy sentimentality.

Watch it: on Prime Video

La Civil (2021)

When law enforcement authorities offer no help, a determined mother goes on a perilous search through northern Mexico for her kidnapped teenage daughter. Arcelia Ramirez is terrific as a housewife who transforms into a vigilante force to be reckoned with in this harrowing thriller. The fly-on-the-wall filming style works powerfully in an unflinching story that feels ripped from the headlines. Director Teodora Mihai has made a powerfully suspenseful, meticulously crafted chronicle of corruption and cruelty with a bravura lead performance.

Watch it: on Prime Video, Apple TV

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2023)

Director Aitch Alberto assembled some well-known faces including Eva Longoria and Eugenio Derbez, and cast two excellent, disarming young actors — first-timer Max Pelayo and Reese Gonzales — as the titular best friends in this tender-hearted coming-of-age drama set in El Paso, Texas, and based on a beloved LGBTQ+ young adult novel. The lead actors have palpable chemistry and the specific details of the story avoid falling into the formulaic version of the genre. A sensitive and subtly tender film, it also offers up some appealing ’80s nostalgia.

Watch it: on STARZ, Hulu

A Million Miles Away (2023)

Given what a terrific actor Michael Pena is, he doesn’t get as many starring roles as he should. Here he delivers an engaging lead performance as Jose Hernandez, whose trajectory from farmworker to engineer to astronaut is wonderfully inspiring. Directed by Alejandra Marquez Abella and based on Hernandez’s memoir, the story traces Hernandez’s perseverance in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal over several decades. The movie also wisely focuses on Hernandez’s relationship with his wife Adela (Rosa Salazar, Alita: Battle Angel), who has essential dreams of her own. This genial tale of tenacity and determination makes for great family viewing.

Watch it: on Prime Video

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Claudia Puig, a regular AARP writer, was the USA Today film critic and a Los Angeles Times writer, and now she’s a critic for NPR and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.