As real-life Mexican Football Federation wheeler-dealer Martín de la Torre, the actor's slightly seedy charisma enlivens a film that spans over a decade of shady soccer business, but doesn't cut very deep.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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México 86. (L to R) Álvaro Guerrero as Guillermo Cañedo, Karla Souza as Susana Gómez-Mont, Diego Luna as Martín de la Torre in México 86. Cr Carlos Somonte / Netflix ©️2025 With the FIFA World Cup literally kicking off next week in the U.S., Canada and Mexico — an unprecedented triple-nation collaboration that makes the last of those countries the first in history to host the soccer tournament a third time — Netflix‘s release of “Mexico 86” is opportunistically timed. Unfolding largely off the pitch, Gabriel Ripstein‘s loosely fact-based comedy (“Some of these things did happen,” an opening title card assures us) delves irreverently into the allegedly iffy backroom dealings that made Mexico the first two-time World Cup host 40 years ago. In the process, it prompts us to idly wonder if much has changed since then: Not itself in the grip of soccer fever, the film is a droll reminder of the sometimes ugly workings behind the beautiful game.
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