Y Tu Mama Tambien Review
by Eugene Novikov (eugenen AT wharton DOT upenn DOT edu)July 22nd, 2002
Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
Starring Diego Luna, Gael Garciá Bernal, Maribel Verdu.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Rated R.
Y Tu Mamá También is a road trip movie, yes, and a movie about teenagers. That doesn't describe the movie, which is like nothing I have ever seen, remarkable in the way it weaves real poignancy into its disarmingly lighthearted exterior. It's also frank, and fearless, and genuine -- not just because it doesn't shy away from sex, poverty or depravity, but because its characters live and witness these things rather than being defined by them (though some of them try to be). The movie lulled me into swaying along with its leisurly rhythm, which is entirely faithful to its slacker characters, and, in the end, I was shocked to find how deeply I cared for, and was affected by, all three of them.
I described the characters as "slackers," which, along with the film's basic set-up, should be enough to give you an idea of what to expect. Tenoch (Diego Luna) is the teenage son of a wealthy politician; Julio (Gael Garciá Bernal) is his somewhat less privileged buddy. Their girlfriends go to Italy for the summer, leaving them alone in Mexico with seemingly no way to satisfy their youthful libidos. At a wedding, they run into an old acquaintaince, a stunningly beautiful older woman named Luisa (Maribel Verd¦) and offhandedly ask her to accompany them on a trip to an idyllic, isolated beach called "Heaven's Mouth" that, alas, exists only in their imaginations.
They don't really expect Luisa to come along, but when she and her husband have a major falling out she decides to take the boys up on their impromptu offer. This puts them in a difficult position, since the edenic paradise they promised her doesn't really exist, but they decide what the hell, why not wing it? There may, after all, be sex involved.
So off they go, on Tenoch and Julio's stoner friend's muddled instructions, three reasonably affluent Mexicans making their way through a part of their homeland they rarely encounter. Tenoch and Julio bicker and boast, almost overwhelming their more experienced companion with their sexual braggadocio. Luisa, finally, lays down the law for the rest of the trip, after threatening to walk off and hitchhike back home. Their extremely symbolic quest for "Heaven's Mouth" can continue.
Y Tu Mamá También was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican-born filmmaker who began his career in America, modernizing Great Expectations, then hitting a critical home run with his acclaimed family film A Little Princess. This is his most personal, most mature film, peeling away the layers of its characters' relationships and at the same time following them on their exploration of Mexico.
Luisa is so much a mother figure to these boys that when the prospect of sex between them comes up, it's a shock. Similarly shocking is the gradually dawning realization that Tenoch and Julio are running away from what maybe unrealized homosexual undertones. This insinuation remains exactly that, suggested with the greatest of subtlety, and yet it's easy to understand their unspoken dread.
On a simpler level, the movie manages the tricky juggling act of characterizing its two protagonists as sex-starved, naïve, boastful, and yet never irritating. They have personalities, and hopes, and fears that go far beyond the typical American Pie caricature. Luna and Bernal are older than the characters they are playing -- apparently a convention not only of Hollywood movies -- but prove adept at portraying immature brats: a somewhat refreshing occurence, given that actors playing kids and teenagers are often assigned the task of projecting a wisdom beyond their years (see anything with Haley Joel Osment, Jena Malone, etc.).
Cuaron gives his film heft by adding a narrator not to further the plot, but to pop in at seemingly random moments to enlighten us about the usually none-too-positive future of a particular place or character. It's yet another element he smoothly blends into a moving, affecting, difficult to forget journey movie.
Grade: A-
Up Next: Scooby Doo
© 2002 Eugene Novikov
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