Luis Bunuel is without a doubt Mexico’s most famous movie director up until this day. But don’t forget about the richness and greatness of contemporary Mexican cinema. We put together a long list which should serve as a proper introduction!
When people think of contemporary Mexican cinema, they usually tend to mention the ‘Big Three’, also called the ‘Three Amigos’, which features the directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro. First of all, even though they get classified as part of a ‘buena onda’, I would not consider them as Mexican filmmakers, anymore. After delivering one Mexican, so-called masterpiece and breakthrough film, respectively Amores perros [Love’s a Bitch] (2000), Y tu mamá también [And Your Mother Too] (2001) and El espinazo del diablo [The Devil’s Backbone] (2001), they all fell for the glitter & glammer and more particular the wealth & fame of the Hollywood system. Secondly, the last pictures they have done there or in terms of it, were horribly overrated. Iñárritu made Biutiful (2010), Cuarón Gravity (2013) and del Toro Pacific Rim (2013). All of them colored inside the Hollywood lines in order to become an overblown blockbuster. That last fellow del Toro even thought of taking on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, just to indicate their distance from their Mexican ‘indie roots’. Fortunately, there is more also much more to explore from this country's great cinema.
- New Mexican movies in 2018
- Best Mexican movies of 2017
- 2010-2018: Must-watch Mexican movies on Netflix or DVD
New Mexican movies in 2018
Top movies up for release in 2018Roma
DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón CAST: Marina de Tavira Daniela Demesa Marco Graf
It's been a while since we last heard from Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. In fact, his last movie was the mind-blowing sci-fi melodrama 'Gravity' from 2013. With 'Roma', he is back on earth, on his home soil even. The movie chronicles the lives of a Mexico City middle-class family during four seasons. Read more
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DIRECTOR: Sebastian Hofmann CAST: Andrés Almeida, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Pablo Guisa Koestinger
Two men become convinced that their families, who are staying in a tropical resort, are in great danger. They set out a plan to rescue them. Read more
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Where Life is Born
DIRECTOR: Carlos Reygadas CAST: Carlos Reygadas Natalia Lopez
Carlos Reygadas, the frontrunner of the Mexican new wave finally returns after his acclaimed masterpiece 'Post Tenebrax Lux'. Reygadas himself and his wife (Natalia Lopez, who happens to be the editor of several high profile Mexican movies) star in this drama about a couple in an open relationship. Read more
RATING: 90/100 Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates
Netflix 
Amazon Best Mexican movies of 2017
Top rated 2017 Mexican moviesI Dream in Another Language
DIRECTOR: Ernesto Contreras CAST: Fernando Álvarez Rebeil José Manuel Poncelis Eligio Meléndez
A linguist travels to an isolated part of the country to scrutinize and record an almost extinct language. There are only two speakers alive, but in order to get them to talk to each other, a 50 year feud needs to be solved first. Read more
RATING: 81/100
RELEASE DATE: January 21st, 2017
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates La región salvaje
DIRECTOR: Amat Escalante CAST: Kenny Johnston Simone Bucio Fernando Corona
Angel and Alejandra's marriage (and sex life) isn't what it supposed to be. Then they meet a mysterious girl who introduces to a 'pleasure-giving'... Read more
RATING: 82/100
RELEASE DATE: January 21st, 2017
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Best Mexican movies on Netflix or DVD in 2018
2010's best rated Mexican movies out on DVD, Bluray or streaming on VOD (Netflix, Amazon).Alamar
DIRECTOR: Pedro González-Rubio CAST: Jorge Machado Roberta Palombini Natan Machado Palombini
A Mexican grandfather goes fishing with his son and grandson. We get to know that his son is divorced and his grandson now lives with his mom in Italy. Through photographs and home video, Alamar explains the previous romance of the now broken marriage. On the boat, fishing, it feels like a semi-documentary which gives a wonderful portrait of a father-son relationship. And never getting too sentimental, it’s a really sympathetic and true to life picture. Read more
RATING: 73/100
RELEASE DATE: July 14th, 2010
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Narco Cultura
DIRECTOR: Shaul Schwarz CAST: Tim Nailer Foley José Manuel 'El Doctor' Mireles Paco Valencia.
When you see this highly interesting documentary, you will first of all not believe your eyes but second of all learn so much about contemporary Mexican culture. And it will make you understand the movies on this list even more. Criminals pay songwriters to compose accordion ‘schlager’ songs about them killing each other. Bazookas are frequently used as accessories on stage when they sing their songs to families and children. It’s a fucked up world you know. Read more
RATING: 72/100
RELEASE DATE: January 21st, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Depués de Lucía
DIRECTOR: Michel Franco CAST: Tessa Ia Hernán Mendoza Gonzalo Vega Jr.
Después de Lucia is about bullying, but in a much further developed, sadistic form. That’s immediately also the downside of the movie. Sometimes it goes way beyond the point of credibility. Franco shows the events as slices of life in a Michael Haneke kind of way, which makes the occurrences even more shocking. The acting is great and its shock value never bores. It gives also a great view on the consequences of the immediate access to capturing and spreading events on video in the ‘smart phone generation’. Besides having made an compelling, equally shocking feature in 2009, Daniel & Ana, Michel Franco has finished a new one. One featuring Año bisiesto‘s Monica del Carmen and other non-actors to achieve a semi-documentary style. A los ojos (2013), not yet released, will be about ineffectiveness of the health system, a very important subject but can he make it into a good film? Read more
RATING: 72/100
RELEASE DATE: February 17th, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Heli
DIRECTOR: Amat Escalante CAST: Armando Espitia Andrea Vergara Linda González
One of the most promising voices in Mexican cinema must be Amat Escalante. He already delivered two intriguing short-films, Amarrados (2002) and El Cura Nicolás Colgado (2010) and three impressive feature films, Sangre [Blood] (2005), Los bastardos [The Bastards] (2008) and Heli (2012). All of them show how unpredictable violence can invade normal people’s lives all of a sudden. Los bastardos feels like Funny Games (Haneke, 1997) as illegal workers penetrate a middle class family’s home. Everything goes wrong afterwards. Heli as well is one hell of an unbelievable thrilling and shocking ride when a guy finds a bag of cocaine and decides to hide at his house. And it’s beautiful shot too, definitely worth your time. Go and see it! Read more
RATING: 68/100
RELEASE DATE: October 19th, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Club Sandwich
DIRECTOR: Fernando Eimbcke CAST: María Renée Prudencio Lucio Giménez Cacho Danae Reynaud
Eimbcke is a master in working out annoying, little situations to full feature movies with subtle but hilarious humor. In Temporada de patos [Duck Season] (2004), a couple of kids are waiting for their pizza to be delivered. In Lake Tahoe (2008), a guy is searching for a replacing engine part of his broken down car. In Eimbcke’s third, Club Sandwich, he describes the holidays of a single mom and her teenager son in an empty HOTEL during low season. They basically do nothing the whole day. Eimbcke transfixes his camera on pleasurable details a lot of us can recognize themselves in. In that way, the film is a very funny and touching story that will grab you, shake you and make you think. Read more
RATING: 66/100
RELEASE DATE: November 21st, 2014
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Post Tenebrax Lux
DIRECTOR: Carlos Reygadas CAST: Rut Reygadas Mitsy Ferrand Joakim Chardonnens
apón [Japan] (2002), Batalla en el cielo [Battle in Heaven] (2005), Stellet Licht [Silent Light] (2007) stand for amazing contemplative cinema, reminiscent of Bresson, Kaurismäki, Dreyer and Bergman, containing often a lot of sexual tension. Especially the second, Batalla en el cielo, can be considered a contemporary masterpiece. It’s a film Harmony Korine would have wished he would have made. Amat Escalante owes a lot to Reygadas. As a matter of fact, the first was the second’s assistent director and the second co-producer of the first. Post Tenebras Lux is a dazzling journey into thought provoking scenes that remember of Apichatpong Weerasethakuls films. So if you like those, you will love this one. The film is full of stuff to think about, it’s dreamy and shocking. Just see it and resee it. Read more
RATING: 66/100
RELEASE DATE: February 20th, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Mai Morire
DIRECTOR: Enrique Rivero CAST: Margarita Saldaña
A woman returns to her hometown in the middle of nowhere when her mother is dying. During simple but at the same time complex family situations, the magnificent landscapes of Xochimilco surrounding their little hut, are beautifully portrayed. We follow Chayo, a strong and mysterious looking middle-aged mother, coming from the city, through river branches and open fields. Besides the ridiculously over-symbolic dream sequences, which the director admitted he should not have included, Mai Morire is an intriguing piece of cinema. Read more
RATING: 66/100
RELEASE DATE: May 3rd, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates La Cebra
DIRECTOR: Fernando Javier León Rodríguez CAST: Jorge Adrián Spíndola Harold Torres Leticia Huijara
The history of the Mexican Revolution in the 1910’s, envisioned through the eyes of two random wanderers. After tossing a coin, they decide to join revolutionary Obregon’s troupes. Like Barry Lyndon, they are straight opportunists and get from the one Bunuellian situation in the other Jodorowskian one. Nice little, funny acid western. Read more
RATING: 64/100
RELEASE DATE: January 18th, 2013
Netflix | Amazon | All Release dates Año bisiesto
DIRECTOR: Michael Rowe CAST: Mónica Del Carmen Gustavo Sánchez Parra Armando Hernández
A young female journalist goes to live in the big city. She tells her family she has a lot of friends and a good time. Everyday, she calls her mom to describe stuff like what she has been eating. When her brother visits her, he has to travel for eight hours. We see her loneliness and isolation. Then, she meets Arturo, who fulfils her weird, sexual desires. Those evolve into a sadomasochistic obsession and a peculiar wish that you will have to find out yourself. Despite the freaky and heavy subject, it’s all wonderfully depicted by the main actress and perfectly understandable because of that, in a way, I think. Read more
RATING: 59/100
RELEASE DATE: June 24th, 2011
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