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.
Not that “Mexico 86” is any kind of ruthless exposé. Buoyed by the scrappy, insistent charisma of a mustachioed Diego Luna as Martín de la Torre, the man chiefly responsible for securing his country its second World Cup gig before his inevitable downfall, Ripstein’s film mostly portrays his story as a bit of a lark. De la Torre is shown lying and bribing his way into FIFA’s good graces, but with a roguish underdog energy that we’re invited to root for: He’s just playing the same game as everyone else, it is implied, but with fewer resources and greater obstacles, he just plays it a little smarter than the rest. Until, well, he doesn’t.
