Get Your Reps In: This Week, We’re Highlighting Some of the Best of Mexican Cinema

These five picks include everything from grounded coming-of-age dramas to fantastical supernatural horror.

Movie - Alucarda (MUBI)

While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, we’re highlighting some of the best of Mexican cinema—from grounded coming-of-age dramas to fantastical supernatural horror.

Real Women Have Curves (2002)

America Ferrera makes her feature film debut as Ana Garcia, a Mexican American teenager torn between her college ambitions and her working-class mother’s expectations. Cited as a precursor to Lady Bird (2017), this East L.A.-set coming-of-age dramedy depicts a young woman’s struggle to find and love herself with universal authenticity. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Amores Perros (2000)

Eight-time Academy Award winner Alejandro González Iñárritu directs this genre-bending dramatic thriller about a fateful car crash in Mexico City and its devastating effect on three strangers: a dog-fighting teenager (Gael García Bernal, in his breakout role), a famous supermodel and a vagabond ex-hitman. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Hoopla, iTunes, Pluto, Tubi, Vudu, YouTube.

Cronos (1993)

In horror-fantasy master Guillermo del Toro’s first feature, a 16th-century alchemist in Veracruz, Mexico, creates a device named Cronos that offers immortality—at a price. In 1996, Cronos is found by an aging antiques dealer who unwittingly triggers it, unaware that someone far more powerful is also looking for the secret to eternal youth. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Criterion Channel, Google Play, Kanopy, HBO Max, iTunes, YouTube.

Alucarda (1977)

After teenage orphan Justine arrives at a convent, she quickly bonds with a fellow orphan, the enigmatic Alucarda. While playing in the woods one day, they come across a mysterious crypt, accidentally unleashing a demonic force that wreaks havoc upon the nunnery. Satanic rituals, possessions and exorcisms ensue in this 78-minute nunsploitation horror film. Hoopla.

I’m No Longer Here (2019)

Set in Monterrey, Mexico, this musical drama follows 17-year-old gang leader Ulises and his friends as they show off their eccentric styles and dance to slowed-down cumbia. But after a misunderstanding with a cartel forces Ulises to flee to Queens. N.Y., he finds himself struggling to assimilate into American culture and missing home. Netflix.

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