Bernal is brilliant as the young Argentinian Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, who chucks in medical school, straddles a motorbike and sets off on an eye-opening tour of South America with his buddy Alberto (Rodrigo De la Serna). This is where director Walter Salles takes us with this origin story of sorts. How does a man go from becoming the powerful symbol of a world-shaping political movement, to the poster boy pasted up on countless dorm room walls? If you want to unpack that question, a fair place to start would be right back at the beginning. The Kindergarten Teacher screens Sunday 3 October at 8.30pm on SBS World Movies. Later, after she starts stealing ideas from one of the young kids she teaches, his shocked approval allows us a voyeuristic insight into a small deception that will soon spiral out of control. Simon puts on his best poker face while trying to offer constructive criticism on her tired compositions in the first class we sit in on. They share the film’s best moments before its utterly bonkers and achingly sad final act. If only she had more of a way with words. Bernal plays Simon, the charismatic though slightly smarmy poetry teacher Lisa decides is her ticket to creative fulfilment. That’s certainly true of Bernal in American director Sara Colangelo’s gob-smacking, New York-set re-do of the Nadav Lapid original.
But even the wildest cards in any movie are usually stacked on less showy roles that are equally important for the deck. Her towering performance as Lisa Spinelli, an early childhood educator who obsessively fixates on the brighter life she feels she deserves, is one for the ages. There’s no denying Maggie Gyllenhaal is the star of this show. Here, we celebrate some of his magic moments on the big screen. This month, SBS World Movies pays homage to Bernal with a special collection of four films, screening 8.30pm Sundays. More recently, he’s played cutesy with his vocal turn in Pixar’s Coco. His trilogy of films shot with Pablo Larraín – Ema, No, Neruda – are all gold, as is his turn as a trans drag star in Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education. One of Mexico’s brightest movie stars, Gael García Bernal went from being a soap opera kid, to the breakout star of Birdman director Alejandro G Iñárritu’s Amores Perros and Roma director Alfonso Cuarón’s luscious road movie Y Tu Mamá También.