There is of course nothing like visiting a country to smell and see what it is really like. But movies are an excellent way as well to explore a country. Especially if it has such a rich cinematic history as Mexico.
Many movies have been shot in Mexico, though not all tell something about the country itself. But if you want to learn a bit about Mexico, here is a (chronologic) list of tips for movies about the country:
- Like Water for Chocolate (1992): the first one is based on a novel by Laura Esquivel and is set in revolutionary Mexico, around 1910. This one though is more a story about relationships than about the political turmoil of those days
- Traffic (2000): the drug wars are a rich inspiration for movies. One of the best was already made in 2000 by a Danish director (Steven Soderbergh), who weaves three storylines together. Benicio del Toro has one of the main roles and wil return later on as well in another epic drug movie
- Amores perros (2000): the movie that ignited the career of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Ths epic 2,5 hour movie set in Mexico City tangles three storylines brilliantly together. Stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Emilio Echevarria in the lead roles
- Y tu mama tambien (2001): another kickstarter for the career of a director, Alfonso Cuaron made an epic roadmovie with rising stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, the actor that is starring in the Mexican part of the Narcos series on Netflix
- Frida (2002): the devotion to Frida Kahlo as the archetypical strong Mexican woman seems to have no limits. In 2002 her life finally became a movie, with Salma Hayek in the lead role
- Güeros (2014): lovely stubborn movie about a difficult kid that is being sent to Mexico City to live with his older brother
- Sicario (2015): idealism and fighting drug trade are a difficult combination. Sicario is a gritty but realistic thriller, set on the northern Mexican border around El Paso. With Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro
- Spectre (2015): now this one only has its legendary opening sequence in Mexico (City), but it’s so good it deserves a mention here. The Day Of The Death parade by the way was only held to record the movie, but then became a tradition in Mexico’s capital. The rest of the movie is mediocre by the way
- Cartel Land (2015): it is astonishing what access the director Matthew Heineman gets in this documentary about drug wars in central Mexico. He follows the crusade of a local doctor and other villagers against local drug gangs, but he also shows why this situation ius so extremely complicated
- Coco (2017): the only illustrated movie on the list, Pixar basically makes a beautiful ode to the love for music
- Roma (2018): director Alfonso Cuaron returns to his childhood neighborhood (Tepeji street in the Roma area of Mexico City) to make this slow, beautiful ode to the maid of a middle-class family in the 1960s. Shot in black and white, it tells both about that era in local politics and about the role of indigenous cultures in Mexico. Available on Netflix
- I am no longer here / Ya no estoy aqui (2019): heartwarming movie on Netflix about a small youth culture in the northern city of Monterrey, where the kids love to dance to cumbia music. It’s almost a documentary about this street culture, mixed up with a coming-of-age story and the daily life with drug gangs
- The 43 (2019): by no means the best work on this list, but still by any means a necessary documentary. It investigates the disappearance of 43 students a couple of years ago and shows why the official account of the government is wrong
