Facing El Chapo Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Facing El Chapo takes a little too long to find its footing, but once it does, it delivers a genuinely tense and believable thriller, backed by strong performances and a refusal to over-dramatize its violence.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Director: Chava Cartas
Cast: Alfonso Herrera, Noe Hernandez, Hector Kotsifakis
Facing El Chapo throws viewers into a race against time, following two Mexican police officers, Arturo Carmona and Hector Rosales, as they attempt to bring the infamous drug lord El Chapo into custody before his people can track them down and kill them.
With a ticking clock and no clear sense of who can be trusted, the film builds its tension around a single, high-stakes question: can these two men get their prisoner safely behind bars?
The film takes its time getting there, though. Its opening stretch focuses heavily on Officer Carmona, spending time with his family and the events that eventually put him in position to capture El Chapo.
Getting to know the lead character before the danger truly begins is a smart choice in theory, since audiences tend to feel more invested once real tension kicks in. In practice, though, this setup runs a little longer than it probably needed to, making the early portion of the film feel slightly uneven.
Once that groundwork is laid, however, Facing El Chapo does a genuinely good job establishing the partnership between Carmona and Rosales. The two have only just been paired together, and Rosales is new to the area, which naturally creates a lack of trust between them right when they need each other most. That uncertainty is handled well throughout the film.
As a viewer, you are never quite sure whether Rosales might betray Carmona to save himself or whether he will actually come through when it matters. Rather than feeling manufactured for the sake of drama, this tension comes across as a natural byproduct of two very different personalities being forced to work together under pressure.
A key raid carried out by Mexican Marines eventually pushes El Chapo directly into the path of our two officers, and this is where the film really finds its footing. What makes Facing El Chapo work so well from this point forward is its careful balance between believability and tension. Violence is a constant threat throughout the film, but it never feels overused or exaggerated.
The gang members surrounding El Chapo are clearly willing to kill when necessary, but none of them are eager to die needlessly either. That grounded approach to danger keeps the tension escalating in a smart way, leaving viewers less focused on whether a gun will go off and more focused on exactly when it might happen.
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That same realistic sense of danger and confidence extends to El Chapo himself. For much of his screen time, he spends his energy threatening Carmona with the consequences of not giving in to his demands.
But there are key moments where that confident facade cracks, and actor Hector Kotsifakis does an excellent job letting the audience see just how aware El Chapo actually is of his own mortality, especially as tension builds toward his final confrontation with Carmona.
The film’s climax pulls everything together well, delivering one last increase in tension without ever betraying the grounded, believable tone it has built up to that point. There is some clever misdirection in how this final sequence plays out, keeping viewers genuinely caught up in the moment rather than able to predict exactly what comes next.
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Overall, Facing El Chapo takes a bit too long to fully get going, with its opening act feeling stretched compared to the tightly wound tension that follows.
But once the film settles into its central cat-and-mouse dynamic between Carmona, Rosales, and El Chapo himself, it becomes a genuinely engaging watch.
The careful balance between real emotion and mounting tension, without ever tipping into unnecessary melodrama, is what makes the film feel authentic, and ultimately, worth the time it takes to get there.
For fans of grounded crime thrillers built on tension rather than spectacle, Facing El Chapo delivers a satisfying and believable ride.
Facing El Chapo is now streaming on Netflix.