‘Mexico 86’ (2026) Netflix Movie Review - Misses to Catch a Goal

With the FIFA World Cup approaching, Netflix is back again with yet another football drama. The plot revolves around Martín de la Torre, a fast-talking football federation operative whose career has started as a once-in-a-generation sort of opportunity appears in his life. When Colombia announces that it can no longer host a tournament due to financial and political difficulties, the opportunity passes on to Mexico. The only issue is that Mexico is itself dealing with significant challenges, including the devastating 1985 earthquake and economic instability.

Despite all this, Martin becomes determined to convince FIFA officials that Mexico is capable of hosting one of the world’s biggest sporting events. In order to achieve this, he launches a frantic campaign that involves political negotiations, media attention, and some strategic deals with powerful figures in business, government, and politics. As and when Martin’s efforts begin to gain momentum, the film explores how sports events like these are mostly shaped by politics, money, national reputation, etc, the factors that we hardly get to see.

Mexico 86 doesn’t follow the typical rule of focusing solely on football. Rather, it shows the logistics that go behind everything while conducting an event of that scale. Clearly, the makers have ensured not to make it a traditional movie on sports. If you are expecting grand celebrations of football, that is not something you get to watch in Mexico 86. For such fans, I would suggest watching movies with plots that solely focus on that.  This one is of a different genre, with football acting only as a backdrop.

However, the movie never manages to work on this premise fully. Though it manages to create the atmosphere of a 1980s Mexico, the plot becomes confusing while watching. One scene comes after the other, which doesn’t give much clarity. It feels like everything has been shot in a way that hardly makes any sense.

The pacing is uneven as well. Mostly, the Mexico 86 works at a very slow speed. Right from start to end, the entire plot moves so slowly that viewers will end up losing their interest as a whole while attempting to watch it. There was a lot of scope to make the pacing even. Yet, things fail to materialize at runtime.

The only saving grace is the cast. Diego Luna as Martin does a fantastic job in doing his work. His role as someone who works with strategy comes across as a sorted character. The emotions he has displayed throughout the runtime make him a very convincing watch. Not once does it come to know when his character has ended. Even the look given to him belongs to the 80s, which adds more layers.

The overall character development is also nice. We get to see how much his character has changed right when the plot starts to the time credits begin to roll. So all in all, dear viewers, if you wish to know more about what goes on behind organizing an international-level match, Mexico 86 is what you should be watching.

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Neerja Ch
Follow @NeerjaCH on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times