Gael García Bernal Movies

Actor Diego Luna stepped behind the camera to direct this warm drama about a young boy whose emotional problems take him in an unexpected direction. Abel is an unstable child whose issues have only gotten worse since his father walked out on the family. No one in the household is sure what to do for Abel or how they should behave around him, and a stay in a mental hospital does little to ground him. However, one day Abel wakes up and decides that he's the man of the house, and begins acting like his absent father rather than the youngest child. To the surprise of everyone, adult responsibilities agree with Abel, and the family seems significantly happier with his new personality. But this proves to be short-lived when Abel's real dad unexpectedly returns, and the two vie for the status of head of the household. Abel received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish drama, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez) is a Spanish filmmaker who is having trouble settling on a new project when he's approached by Ignacio Rodriguez (Gael García Bernal), who was his close friend when they were schoolboys. Goded, who fell in love for the first time with Rodriguez, barely recognizes the man as his former crush, but agrees to read the short story he's written. The tale turns out to be an semi-autobiographical account of their days in a Catholic boarding school, in which a cross-dressing night-club performer named Zahara (also played by Bernal) hooks up with a man named Enrique (Alberto Ferreiro), who turns out to have been his first lover when he was a student. Recalling their school days, Zahara tracks down Father Manolo (Daniel Giménez Cacho), one of his teachers from school with pedophilic tendencies, and threatens to expose the priest's attempts to seduce him and ruin his relationship with Enrique years ago. Goded decides to use the story as the basis for his next film, and Rodriguez, an out-of-work actor, makes it clear he's eager to play Zahara. However, Goded isn't certain if Rodriguez is the right actor for the role, or if he's even the man he claims to be; an angry conflict with Rodriguez leads Goded back to the real Ignacio's mother (Petra Martínez). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The son (Will Ferrell) of a rancher unwittingly gets into a war with a local drug lord (Gael Garcia Bernal) after his supposedly wealthy brother (Diego Luna) turns out to be unable to settle the family's financial troubles in this Spanish-language comedy from Gary Sanchez Productions. Frequent Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (Step Brothers, The Other Guys) produces, with Funny or Die's Matt Piedmont handling direction duties. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

On March 5, 1960, Che Guevara, one of the architects of the Cuban revolution, attended a memorial service for seventy-five men who died while explosive cargo was being unloaded from a ship in the Havana harbor. Photographer Alberto Korda snapped a picture of Guevara at the event, and while it went unpublished at the time, in the late Sixties an Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, asked Korda's permission to reproduce the image of the then-martyred revolutionary leader. Korda agreed, and within a few years his portrait of Che, wearing a beret and looking with determination to some point in the distance, became one of the most famous photos in the world. Korda didn't mind seeing the photo appear in unlikely places, from banners at protests to T-shirts, but in 2000 he filed suit against the producers of Smirnoff vodka after they used the picture in a magazine advertisement, arguing that he never intended it to be used for commercial purposes. Filmmakers Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez trace the strange journey of Korda's portrait of Che, from revolutionary symbol to advertising logo and an iconic but little-understood image often adopted by young people who aren't sure who the man is, in the documentary Chevolution. The film includes interviews with actors Antonio Banderas and Gael Garcia Bernal, both of whom have played Guevara on screen, and Tom Morello of the Leftist rock band Rage Against The Machine, who have used the Che portrait on their T-shirts. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two young indigenous brothers from the La Sierra Tarahumara region of northwest Mexico return home from Benito Juarez elementary boarding school, only to find their fates pulling them in opposite directions in director Laura Amelia Guzmán's dramatic meditation on the value of culture and the cost of progress. Evaristo and Luis Antonio Lerma Batista have graduated from boarding school. Though 12-year-old Evaristo would like nothing more than to continue his education, learn Spanish, and lead a bicultural existence, his 11-year-old sibling couldn't see things more differently. Antonio is thrilled to be finished with school. Despite being a considerably bright student, Antonio would much rather spend his days on the family ranch than in the classroom. As both brothers take their tentative first steps into the adult world, they are assigned the task of delivering a package to a faraway community and lent the family horse to get the job done. After taking a wrong turn down a narrow and winding canyon, Evaristo and Antonio decide to tie the horse to a tree and attempt to find a way out. Upon returning some time later, the brothers discover that the horse is missing and they decide to split up. Now, as Antonio searches for the horse and Evaristo sets out to deliver the package, these two brothers will experience a side of Tarahumara culture that can't be taught in a classroom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two of Spain's biggest female stars headline this offbeat comedy about the battle of wills between good and evil. Heaven is not getting its fair share of business for the afterlife, so Lola (Victoria Abril), an angel who sings in a nightclub located beyond the pearly gates, is sent to Earth to drum up business by her boss, Marina (Fanny Ardant). Her first prospect is Manny (Demián Bichir), a prizefighter with an injury that could take his life at any time. As Lola tries to claim Manny's soul for the Lord, the wicked Jack Davenport (Gael García Bernal) believes that the Devil deserves the boxer's soul, and he sends one of Hell's waitresses, Carmen (Penélope Cruz), to seal the deal. On Earth, Lola takes the form of Manny's former love and urges him to mend fences with his mother, while seductive Carmen tries to persuade Manny to return to the ring, knowing that another fight would mean his death. While Lola and Carmen wage war over Manny's soul, they maintain their cover by working at a grocery store, where they both learn a few lessons about the pitfalls of earthly capitalism. Meanwhile, Manny is dealing with financial problems of his own -- he owes money to the city's corrupt police commissioner (Emilio Gutiérrez Caba), who is using his strong-arm men to "persuade" Manny to pay up. Released in Europe as Sin Noticias de Dios (which translates as No News From God), Don't Tempt Me was a box-office success in Spain when it was released in late 2001, though it wouldn't reach American theaters until 2003. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

For his sophomore effort, Drama/Mex, writer-director Gerardo Naranjo (Malachance) juxtaposes three back-to-back stories, set in the once lush and exclusive - now over-commercialized and garish - resort town of Acapulco, over the course of the same long, hot night. Naranjo mounts an experimental narrative structure, with each successive tale set backward in time just prior to the end of the last story - a "relay-style" structural experimentation that mirrors and recalls Fernando Mereilles's City of God). The first tale involves a thief Chano (Emilio Valdés who crops up and threatens the sanctity of ex-girlfriend Fernanda's (Diana García) relationship with Gonzalo (Juan Pablo Castañeda), even breaking into her house to win her back. In the second story, someone tips Gonzalo off that Fernanda has been seen kissing Chano in a crowded restaurant. In desperation, Gonzalo hires a mariachi band and serenades Fernanda outside of her house. The third tale concerns Jaime (Fernando Becerril) who, after lifting the company payroll and using part of it to rent a beachfront property, contemplates suicide - until a relationship with an equally dishonest fifteen-year-old runway and scam artist, Tigrillo (Miriana Moro) grants him a new lease on life. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Filmed in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, this massive biography of Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins in the 1950s, when the title character, then a young and hungry lawyer, bristles at the iniquities and corruption of the Batista political regime. Inspired by the words by left-wing radio commentor Eddie Chibas (Hector Elizondo), Fidel becomes active in a revolutionary movement aimed at toppling Fulgencio Batista (Tony Plana). In 1959, Castro and his followers stage a spectacularly successful coup, one that is staunchly supported by thousands of idealists and Cuban expatriates in the United States. Unfortunately, to paraphrase cartoonist Bill Mauldin, no sooner has Fidel come down from the hills like Robin Hood than he begins behaving like the Sheriff of Nottingham, killing scores of his political enemies in round-the-clock executions, routinely snatching away the basic human rights that he had promised his followers, and embracing Communism with a fervent passion. Although the film does not shy away from showing the darker side of Castro, it is essentially sympathetic to its subject, balancing the Cuban dictator's political outrages with his many acts of benevolence, and attempting to provide "motivation" for what seem to be appalling contradictions. Victor Huggo Martin and Honorato Magaloni are cast respectively as the younger and older Castro, with Maurice Compte as his brother Raul and Gael Garcia Bernal as the ill-fated Che Guevara.Fidel was originally telecast in two parts over the Showtime cable network on January 27 and 28, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Y Tu Mamá También star Diego Luna makes his directorial debut with this documentary tracing the life and career of Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez. From his very first bouts to his unforgettable matches against such formidable opponents as Oscar De La Hoya and Kostya Tszyu, Luna's film merges past and present by following the legendary Chavez as he prepares for retirement and begins training son Julio César Chávez, Jr. to carry on the fighting family tradition. It isn't every day that a boy who spent his youth in a boxcar in Mexico rises through the ranks to become a six-time world champion, yet somehow Chávez managed to beat the odds to become one the most respected boxers in the history of the sport. Interviews with the pugilist's family and friends reveal the fascinating details about Chávez's rise from poverty, with an examination of the fighter's questionable association with Mexican president Vicente Fox and an ill-conceived "farewell tour" highlighting how social controversy can be as devastating as even the most solid left hook. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Three years after his "experimental" phase wrapped with the jarring, iconoclastic Container, Swedish enfant terrible Lukas Moodysson returned for this sprawling, ambitious social drama. Echoing Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel and featuring two Hollywood A-listers as his leads, Mammoth also marked the director's premier English-language project. Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal co-star as Ellen and Leo, New York marrieds; she's an emergency-room surgeon, he's a listless, vaguely dissatisfied Internet game designer. They have a family, albeit an unconventional and dysfunctional one: seven-year-old daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) is practically being raised by a 24/7 Filipino caregiver, Gloria (Marife Necesito), who dotes on her incessantly. This provokes the envy of Ellen and the resentment of Gloria's two geographically estranged sons, Manuel (Martin Delos Santos) and Salvador (Jan Nicdao), who repeatedly phone their mom from Manila and plead with her to come home. Gloria's mother grows so distressed by this behavior that she attempts to show Salvador just how easy his life is in comparison to that of others, which leads to unanticipated tragic consequences. Meanwhile, Leo teams up with a shifty associate, Bob (Tom McCarthy), flies to Thailand, and encounters a freewheeling, laid-back working mother named Cookie (Run Srinikornchot). Step by step, the actions that Leo takes while abroad create a domino effect and alter everyone's lives in irreversible ways. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Ten Mexican filmmakers consider their nation on the centennial of the revolution in this anthology feature. For Revolucion, ten directors were asked to each contribute a ten minute film that in some way dealt with Mexico, its people, its national character and the legacy of the revolution. Actor Gael García Bernal directed Lucio, in which a young boy who is practicing the flag salute for school is confronted by his irreverent brother and must consider his views on patriotism and faith. Mariana Chenillo's La Tienda de Raya (aka The Estate Store) concerns a woman working for a discount store that pays her in company script rather than cash, making it even harder to climb out of poverty. Fernando Eimbcke directed La Bienvenida (aka The Welcome), in which a small town musician patiently waits for his opportunity to perform for a visiting dignitary. Two children come to the rescue of a priest tied to a tree in El Cura Nicolas Colgado (aka The Hanging Priest), a surreal episode by Amat Escalante. Rodrigo García's La 7th y Alvarado (aka At 7th and Alvarado) is an impressionistic piece in which the revolutionaries who fought for freedom and justice in Mexico pay a visit to modern day Los Angeles. Diego Luna's Pacifico tells the story of a man who takes some time off from his family only to discover how much they mean to him. A man trying to get medical help for his injured friend is forced to take desperate action in Gerardo Naranjo's R-100. Rodrigo Plá's 30/30 follows an elderly relative of Pancho Villa who is invited to a public celebration of the revolution but doesn't get the reception he expects. Este Es Mi Reino (aka This Is My Kingdom) by Carlos Reygadas observes a curiously aggressive holiday celebration in which natives and American visitors go on a tear while the community's poor look on. And in Lindo y Querido (aka Beautiful and Beloved) from Patricia Riggen, a family of Mexican expatriates living in America head home to honor an elder's final request. Revolucion received its world premiere at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi