Y Tu Mama Tambien Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)April 20th, 2002
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN (AND YOUR MAMA TOO), told with bold exuberance by Mexican Director Alfonso Cuarón (A LITTLE PRINCESS), is a very unique comedic drama. Think of it, perhaps, as a road trip cross of BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and THE GRADUATE.
The story has four stars: Tenoch Iturbide (Diego Luna), an extremely wealthy older teenager, Julio Zapata (Gael García Bernal), Tenoch's working class buddy, Luisa Cortés (Maribel Verdú), Tenoch's married cousin with a very unfaithful husband, and the keenly observant, ever-present narrator (Daniel Giménez Cacho).
The happy-go-lucky guys, Tenoch and Julio, spend their days drinking, smoking dope and laughing the day and night away. Actually, they admit that they frequently find their lives pretty boring.
When the boys meet the slightly older Luisa at a wedding party in which the bodyguards outnumber the guests, they invite her to join them the next day on a trip to a very remote but beautiful beach call Heaven's Mouth. The invitation is just a lark, and they don't expect her to join them. When later she accepts, they are in a panic since, as far as they know, the beach doesn't even exist, but, armed with contradictory directions from one of the boys' stoner friends, the three of them head out to Heaven's Mouth. It'll take a few days to get there, if they ever do. Along the way, they have real conversations -- not the typical fake movie conversations -- about sex. They also pass through some very poor rural areas, providing an important social commentary. However, the trio rarely notices how different the environment is from the big city they just left.
Unlike AMERICAN PIE or VAN WILDER's smutty version of sex, Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN shows these teens' raging hormones with honest explicitness. At times they seem to be descended more from rabbits than apes.
This is sometimes quite a devastating film with its honesty, which punctuates the comedy with the same suddenness as the blown out tire which causes their road trip to be put temporarily on hold.
Mostly, as they drive along, the guys cut up with giddy playfulness. Typical of the scenes is one in which they list their multipoint manifesto to Luisa. Number five is not sleeping with each other's girlfriends. Want to bet on whether this rule has ever been violated? Number ten is more existential: "The truth is cool but totally unobtainable."
Eventually, the story's happy tone turns more serious. At one point, in total disgust, Luisa shakes her head, remarking to herself, "Play with babies, and you'll end up washing dirty diapers."
By some measures, little happens in their few days together, yet what does is so revealing. It's like a trip from your youth that you'll never forget, but one that you're pretty sure you'll never be able to do again.
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN runs 1:45. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. It is not rated but would be NC-17 for explicit sexual scenes, full frontal nudity, drug usage and language and would be acceptable for college students.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas and the Century Theaters.
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