La Máquina, review: Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are perfect sparring partners

The Mexican actors reunite for a boxing drama that packs a punch in and out of the ring

4/5
Boxing is a world that lends itself to good drama. The stakes are high and the sport is full of characters. La Máquina (Disney+) doesn’t disappoint on either score. It is a Spanish-language drama set in Mexico and at its heart is the relationship between two lifelong friends: former welterweight champion Esteban “La Máquina” (The Machine) Osuna and his manager, Andy Lujan. 
Esteban, played by Gael García Bernal, is approaching the end of his career. He’s 38, is on anxiety medication after battles with drink and drugs, and when we first meet him is in the process of getting walloped in the ring. When a doctor later asks him whether he still attends AA meetings, Esteban says he has more pressing concerns: “I was knocked down in the first round in front of millions of people. Is there a support group for that situation?”
But he’s the model of emotional stability when compared to Andy, a man so addicted to cosmetic enhancements that he injects his own lip filler in front of the bathroom mirror (Diego Luna wears layers of prosthetics for the role). He has somehow managed the career of one of Mexico’s most beloved boxers despite not being cut out for it. Andy gloomily tells his mother that the promoters want to dump Esteban after his latest loss. Of course they do, she replies briskly: “You’re too stupid for business and he’s too old.”
Andy, though, manages to secure a last shot at glory for his one and only client. But the prospect of that fight draws out some dangerous underworld characters, and soon we’re in the realms of match-fixing and murder.
The tone is blackly comic in places, mainly thanks to Luna’s hysterical performance, which mixes absurdity with pathos. García Bernal is more serious, playing Esteban as a soulful character wrestling with ageing, fame and failure. The two actors were childhood friends (and memorably first worked together on Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 film Y Tu Mamá También) and play off one another with ease. That real-life relationship is also woven into the script. Andy is motivated not by money – although he enjoys spending it, often on revolting suits – but by loyalty to Esteban. Unfortunately, his bad decision-making takes them down a dangerous road.
García Bernal is a little too pretty to play a boxer. His face remains untouched during the fight scenes and he barely breaks a sweat, although the fight choreography itself is decent (I asked my husband’s opinion on this, and he said it looked realistic; he’s such a boxing fan that he took me to visit Manny Pacquiao’s LA gym on our honeymoon). Esteban’s opponents in the ring are played by real boxers, which helps.
The drama drags in scenes dwelling on Esteban’s hallucinations, with too many scenes set inside his mind. But when García Bernal and Luna share the screen, their chemistry sparks.
All six episodes of La Máquina are on Disney+ from Wednesday 9 October
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