Growing up in Mexico and moving to the U.S. at 12-years-old gave me the best of both worlds. During my early years, I got to experience watching telenovelas, the Latinx version of Disney Channel, and even Latinx shows on MTV. I was directly exposed to vibrant Mexican pop culture, which can be lost in the U.S. To share my knowledge with other people who may not have gotten the same exposure to the Latinx experience I did, I created a list of the best Mexican movies of all time to watch.
In the past several decades and especially within the last few years, more creatives have demonstrated that Mexican movies can be not only of good caliber but worthy of being put on the global stage. Many filmmakers hailing from the country have gone on to be Oscar winners, and several rising talents are following in their footsteps with projects that can make you laugh and feel, but also teach a valuable lesson. Many of the best movies from Mexico are about social and economic issues in some form and can even span genres, from epic dramas to coming-of-age films to romance. In recent years especially, films feature topics that have been ignored or cast aside, such as LGBTQ+ issues, fragile masculinity, sexual assault, and femicides.
