Carlos Cuarón’s footballing comedy stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, reunited after Y Tu Mama Tambien, one of the films that kick-started the Mexican New Wave.

Carlos is the brother of Alfonso Cuarón, who directed that film, and he casts Bernal and Luna as Tato and Beto, small-time players spotted by a crooked scout and hauled off to Mexico City to seek fame and fortune.

Beto is a goalkeeper whose penchant for gambling leads him into trouble with his wife.

Bernal is a striker whose chief ambition is not football but showbusiness.

The result is havoc, since the scout is determined to fix matches and Tato gets hooked on a pretty model who double-crosses him as soon as the goals dry up.

The film shows the beautiful game as a route out of poverty but also as constant prey for Mexico’s endemic corruption.

Beto and Tato are “diamonds in the rough” who don’t get to play alongside Beckham for Real Madrid like in Goal! but somehow survive after everything goes wrong.

Cuaron’s mixture of near farce and realism works well most of the time, though there are moments when the narration suffers from too many meaningless metaphors.

The playing is excellent throughout, with Bernal particularly good as the lithe striker who watches the dreadful pop video he has made again and again but has to be sedated and relegated to the bench when his girlfriend deserts him.