Facing El Chapo (2026) — A True Story That Deserved More
Facing El Chapo (2026) · ⭐⭐½ (2.5/5)
Dir. Chava Cartas · Starring Alfonso Herrera, Noé Hernández, Héctor Kotsifakis · 91 min · Spanish
Streaming: Netflix
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The setup: Mexico, 2016. Two federal police officers — the by-the-book Arturo Carmona (Alfonso Herrera) and his unpredictable veteran partner Héctor Rosales (Noé Hernández) — are working overtime on a routine night patrol when they pull over a stolen car. Inside: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán (Héctor Kotsifakis), the world's most wanted drug lord, fresh from a dramatic sewer escape during a military raid. What follows is a tense standoff in a motel as the officers must decide: turn in El Chapo and risk everything, or accept his multimillion-dollar bribe and walk away rich.
The verdict: just OK. The premise is gold — two regular cops in an impossible situation, a system riddled with corruption, and the most famous criminal in the world offering you a life-changing sum to look the other way. The true story behind it (Operation Black Swan) is genuinely extraordinary. But Facing El Chapo never quite lives up to its own premise.
Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández are solid. Herrera plays Carmona with a coiled intensity — you can see the moral calculus happening behind his eyes. Hernández is the more instinctive partner, and their dynamic carries the film. Héctor Kotsifakis brings an eerie calm to El Chapo — he's not chewing scenery, he's quietly terrifying, which works.
The film looks great. Chava Cartas shoots Sinaloa with a gritty, sun-baked authenticity — the highways, the motels, the dusty small towns. The cinematography by every standard is professional and atmospheric. The 91-minute runtime is appreciated — nothing overstays its welcome.
But the pacing is uneven. The first act takes too long to get to the traffic stop. Once we're at the motel, the tension builds in fits and starts rather than a steady climb. The screenplay by Bernardo Esquinca doesn't give us enough time with the characters before putting them in crisis — we know the stakes intellectually but don't feel them emotionally. The flashback structure, cutting between the motel standoff and the military raid on El Chapo's safe house, is effective but underutilized.
The film also struggles with what it wants to be. Is it a character study of two cops under impossible pressure? A political thriller about systemic corruption? A true-crime procedural? It gestures at all three without committing fully to any. The result is a film that's competently made but never quite gripping.
Bottom line: A perfectly watchable way to spend 91 minutes, but the true story deserved a more ambitious film. The performances are good, the premise is compelling, but the execution is flat. If you're in the mood for a Mexican crime thriller and have low expectations, it delivers. If you're expecting the next Sicario, you'll be disappointed.