Y Tu Mama Tambien Reviews

• Delightful, meaningful coming of age movie

  
  By A152C8GYY25HAH on 2002-10-27
  Adult-themed movies are rarely made these days in America, the country which, ironically, is the porn capital of the world. The MPAA's rating system is confusing and often contradictory. No studio wants the dreaded `NC-17' rating because, among other reasons, many newspapers and TV stations won't carry ads for movies so rated. To me, it's a sad, hypocritical situation. Fortunately, other countries do make movies for adults. "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is from Mexico, and, while its graphic depiction of sexual situations may seem startling to American audiences, it is far more honest, compelling and intelligent than its timid, childish American counterparts. ["American Pie" is a perfect example.]

  Two teenagers, Julio and Tenoch [Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna] are looking forward to the pleasures of summer. They've just graduated from high school, and their girlfriends are going off to Italy for an extended stay. After biding the girls a fond farewell, the boys set out to have as much fun as they can. At a fancy party, they meet Luisa [Maribel Verdu], the wife of Tenoch's cousin. The pair is smitten by the older woman. Impulsively, they invited her to take a road trip with them to a beach they know called Heaven's Mouth. She politely refuses. Later, when she catches her husband being unfaithful, she announces that she is ready to see the beach. [Her real reason for going is not revealed until the film's final scene.] The problem is that the guys made the beach up. Despite this technical problem, the trio sets out for the long drive to the ocean. At the end of the journey, they find a wonderful surprise. Along the way, Luisa teaches both young men how to treat a woman. They also learn other, more serious lessons about life.

  On the surface, this is a comedic `road trip' movie, one of the best ever made. Beneath the surface, there lies a poignant, meaningful coming of age tale.

  This lively, well acted and beautifully photographed film is highly recommended for adults but not for children, for whom it was never intended.

  In Spanish with English subtitles.
  
  

• Boys will be boys everywhere

  
  By A2DSXA1E02C86D on 2002-04-27
  The subtitles aside, it's obvious from the very first scene of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN that it's not a U.S. production. So, take that, MPAA!

  Two Mexican teenaged pals, Julio and Tenoch, have just said goodbye to their respective girlfriends, who are leaving on a vacation to Italy. Now, awash with raging hormones as boys of that age are, they spend their time obsessing about...well, you know...and doing everything possible to keep their reproductive organs occupied. Soon, they meet Luisa, a ten years-older woman married to a distant cousin of one of our heroes. Apparently devastated by her husband's ongoing infidelities, Luisa impulsively agrees to accompany Julio and Tenoch on a drive across country to a mythical beach called Heaven's Mouth. Luisa genuinely wants to see the seashore. We all know what the boys want.

  I'd better tell you now that, while Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN is exuberantly erotic, it's not smutty. Or, at least, it shouldn't be in the eye of the beholder unless it's been forgotten what life involves.

  The film is, of course, a coming of age story. Luisa's unabashed and uninhibited sexuality puts a predictable strain on the boys' friendship as she tries, at times with great exasperation, to get them to set aside their adolescent callowness (and grow up, for Chrissakes!). But, while the movie is sometimes a comedy and very much a teenaged boy's fevered fantasy, it's more than that. Julio's family is of middle-class affluence, and Tenoch's is simply just rich. In their drive across Mexico, the boys barely notice the poverty and police presence so much a part of the country because their minds are elsewhere. But, the audience sees it, and is reminded of the economic gulf separating societal elements by the occasional voiceover of an unseen narrator. One particularly poignant incident involves the travelers paying a monetary tribute to a rural "queen" in order to pass a roadblock, a garland of flowers stretched across the pavement by poor villagers.

  Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN doesn't rate the appellation of "great". The theme has been presented too many times before. But the humanity of it is intensely engaging. The boys, played by Gael Bernal and Diego Luna, are admittedly immature in all the ways that make even girls of the same age roll their eyes in disbelief. But they carry it off with such zest that it's impossible not to like them. And I can testify as a former adolescent boy that Maribel Verdu as Luisa could rightly be the centerfold of the most feverish daydream. However, her role goes much deeper. As the plot unfolds, the audience realizes that the ostensible reason for her leaving her husband isn't what's driving her. When we learn what the real cause is, we are left profoundly sad at the immense tragedy of it.

  See this terrific movie, especially if you're the parent of a teen boy and you've forgotten what demons drive a young male of that age. This could be the best foreign film of 2002.
  
  

• very good

  
  By A2FEGRJQNU51P9 on 2003-05-21
  Y Tu Mama Tambien is a road movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Great Expectations). Set in Mexico we are introduced to two 17 year old boys having sex with their girlfriends. The girlfriends are about to leave for a trip to Italy so they are looking to get just a little bit more fun in before the trip. They leave, and Tenoch and Julio are left to find their own entertainments. They are part of Mexico�s upper middle class and while at a party (thrown by one of their parents), they meet an older woman (in her late twenties). Not expecting her to accept, they invite Louisa to a fictitious beach called �Heaven�s Mouth�. After learning of her husband�s infidelity, Louisa takes the trip. Tenoch and Julio pretend they know where they are going and head towards a beach they hope will really be there when they get there.

  This is a very sexual film, from the opening scenes to the denoument. There is a lot of discussion about sex, a fair amount of sex scenes (graphic and tender at the same time), and this just feels honest. We are not given nudity for the sake of nudity because in this film it feels essential to the ability to tell the story. The camera shows, but doesn�t linger.

  The road trip and the development of the characters are extremely well done and the film rises well above the concept of the source material. We see Tenoch and Julio begin to grow up and grow into the men they will likely become. They begin the movie very immature and only looking for sex, drugs, and hanging with their friends. This movie shows the first steps beyond their childhood. Y Tu Mama Tambien could have easily become a Mexican version of American Pie or Road Trip, but this is much, much better. Highly recommended with a warning of a lot of sex and nudity.
  
  

• A teen sex movie as Chekhov might have written it.

  
  By A1FG91CM8221X1 on 2002-05-05
  There will never be an American film like "Y Tu Mama Tambien"--certainly not as long as the Weitz and Farrelly brothers hold sway in Hollywood. Alfonso Cuaron takes the basic plot of a Hollywood teen sex comedy--two rowdy teens take the woman of their dreams on a road trip to the beach--and makes something amazingly nuanced, powerful and moving from it. Middle-class Julio and wealthy, politically connected Tenoch are recent high-school graduates looking forward to a summer of hot sex and getting wasted. At a wedding reception, they meet Luisa, the sexy wife of Tenoch's older cousin, and spin a tall tale about Heaven's Mouth, the beautiful, secluded (and nonexistent) beach where they plan to spend their summer. Nothing more is said about this until--after receiving two very bad pieces of news--Luisa calls Tenoch and tells him she's coming with them. From then on, you get some traditional road-trip horseplay and sexual badinage, but also some things American audiences wouldn't expect, as the trip simultaneously fulfills Julio and Tenoch's brightest dreams and brings their illusions crashing down to earth. A trip that begins in youthful high spirits ends in lasting sorrow and painful self-knowledge. Throughout the movie, Cuaron has an omniscient narrator tell us facts Julio, Tenoch and Luisa never learn about each other; he also has a running commentary on characters the three pass on their way--poor and oppressed Mexicans who will never know the luxuries the protagonists take for granted. The political and class divisions of Mexico are a powerful undercurrent in this movie, adding to its sting and poignancy; the moment in which Tenoch and Julio finally turn their class resentments on each other comes unexpectedly, but inevitably. "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is extremely profane and contains loads of explicit sex--it is emphatically not for the easily offended. But in delineating the narrow lives of his three main characters, Cuaron illuminates universal truths about human nature, with a touch so sure you'd swear that Chekhov had been transplanted to 21st-Century Mexico. Maribel Verdu (Luisa), Gael Garcia Bernal (Julio) and Diego Luna (Tenoch) are superb actors as well as being extremely sexy, and one hopes that more movies starring them will make their way across the border.
  
  

• And Here's to You, Mrs. Verdú

  
  By A207AM9CC41VX1 on 2002-11-20
  Image a much more overtly sexual "The Graduate." Transplant the setting to Mexico. Make Benjamin Mexican, younger (17), and give him a best friend. Make Ms. Robinson younger (28), Spanish, gorgeous, and give her a deep secret.

  Now imagine a road trip movie, but one with intelligence, sensitivity, and depth (in addition to the usual sex, drugs, and rock & roll).

  Got it? You now have the foundation for a delightful, thought-provoking film-- Y Tu Mama Tambien.

  I really loved this film. It perfectly captures the coming of age adventures of young men. There is only one thing on the top of their minds, and this film gives a realistic, frank look into those minds. The sub-plots deal with deeper issues: friendship, honesty, trust, commitment, betrayal, sexual identity, death, memory, class, Mexican culture, and politics- all blended into a delightful, beautiful film.

  Julio and Tenoch (Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) are superb as the raging-hormoned 17 year olds. They mix machismo, sensitivity, recklessness, teen stupidity, and soul-searing, life-changing discovery. As the older woman, Maribel Verdú, Luisa Cortes shines. She is gorgeous, frail, emotionally shattered, strong, in control, and teaches the two young men about the richness of sex.

  There is a LOT of sex in this film; after all, it is about two seventeen year old boys, on a road trip with a gorgeous older woman whose husband just confessed to infidelities. Maribel Verdú has reason to experience new sexual adventures; she talks intimately and frankly with the boys about sex, and Julio and Tenoch are willing students. Director Alfonso Cuarón gives us a view of real sex, raw sex. The film is frank about the psyche of teenage boys-- a lot of talk (and action) related to self-gratification and sexual acts of all sorts. But it is handled differently from most American teen sex films: not the brainless, sniggering, puerile portrayal but rather the naked facts of life and love. If you are offended by such frankness, this is not a film for you. But if you would like a film that directly and beautifully deals with the subject, you will love Y Tu Mama Tambien.
  
  

• Conflicting Aspects of Male Sexuality
  By A1W14LPLP6FAIW on 2002-04-02
  This is the second of two important films which have initiated a renaissance in Mexican films. In my opinion, it is a better film than its well-reviewed predecessor, Amores Perros. Both films share the fact that a leading role is played by the talented actor Gael Garcia Bernal. However, I liked Y Tu Mama Tambien better than Amores Perros because overall the characters are much more likeable. The plot of the film involves a road trip to the Oaxacan coast undertaken by two 17-year old boys, Tenoch and Julio, who are best friends, and the older female cousin of Tenoch named Luisa. Each of the boys has a girl friend who is his sexual partner but the girl friends have gone to Italy for the summer. Luisa is 28 years old, married, but distressed at her husband's unfaithfulness. What makes this film so profound is the fact that it depicts a situation where the two boys are simultaneously best buddies and rivals to each other. Moreover, each displays both homophobia and homosexual desire toward the other.
  
  
• Fantastic!
  By ALXR1NJUMTY6D on 2002-07-26
  After consecutively watching two movies from Mexico (Amores Perros and Dona Herlinda & Her Son), I eagerly awaited for Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien. I was not disappointed. The Mexican film industry has definitely arrived. This is one gem of a film that deserves all the critical acclaim it has been receiving in film festivals around the world.

  You can classify this movie as you wish - road movie, coming-of-age tale, may-december interludes, study of a woman in mid-life crisis, sex-starved youth meets lonely woman longing for love and affection - but no matter what the tag is, it remains a masterpiece of modern cinema.

  The three main leads (Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and the amazing Maribel Verdu) all deliver knockout performances that led me to a rollercoaster of emotions culminating in two realizations: 1) that life is too short to waste and 2) that life's lessons come to you in the most unexpected situations. Sure, there is sex dotted generously in this 2-hour film, but they are quickly outshadowed by everything else.

  While I originally saw Y Tu Mama Tambien during the film festival in Venice, I was fortunate enough to buy a DVD copy of this movie in Hongkong (foreign movies in this format are released much earlier here) and add it to my growing collection of must-see movies.

  Watch this one or buy/rent the DVD, you won't be disappointed.
  
  

• A good movie about living life no matter how little is left
  By A2QNJARWTF9H89 on 2003-06-04
  I had heard stories about this movie, but didn't know a lot. The first time I watched it I had no idea what was going on, and even though I saw pivotal plot element early in the movie, it wasn't until the very end of the movie that I realized how important it was. Once you see the ending, and realize why the girl was on the roadtrip it will make you want to watch the movie again.

  There is also lot of socio-political commentary on Mexican life, which distracts many people from what I feel is the actual message the movie is trying to give. That message is that life is short, and when life is very short you should savor every moment of it.

  This movie does have a lot of sex, and a lot of vulgarity. The subtitles translate virtually every intresting word into something starting with F, so if you don't speak Spanish you are really going to miss out on some colorful language.
  
  

• A Breathtaking Exploration of Life
  By A3W4GJR5CCADBX on 2002-11-11
  This film could easily have turned into a typical coming-of-age story peppered with farcical sexual episodes. But under the masterly direction of Cuaron, the story of the two teenagers and one woman who bring them into the adult world through her own mortality becomes something magical and enthralling. The film is an ardent paean to life - it extols the beauties of youth without sentimentalizing or belittling it. The sexual urges of the young boys, and the terrible forward-moving current of them, are lovingly told. What sets this film apart from other movies are the specificities. The masturbations scenes, the funny manifestos these boys write for themselves to keep their friendship, etc... all these things are utterly believable, and real. This makes the climax and the denouement of the movie more heartbreaking and effective, because the passage of youth into adulthood tears down the beautiful romanticism of their youths, and the viewers are reminded of the universal rite of passage, when beauties of every youth must give way to a realization of inevitable mortality. This is universal filmmaking at its finest.

  One of the most interesting features of the film is the narrator's side-comments. Seemingly these comments don't seem to matter directly to the story as they touch on the tangential elements and characters of the movie. But as these accumulate, and in the context of the main thrust of the movie, the narration always intimates that there's more life than what's immediately depicted. By commenting that there's a teeming world beyond the main storytelling, the filmmaker is reminding us of the breathtaking fullness, joy, and sadness of the world that's around us.

  It's a relief to see films like this made. It bodes well for Mexico, as the country continues to make unbelievably good movies. I hope the shameless commercialism and blandness that pervades the movie market in the U.S. don't infiltrate that country and the artists that make these films.
  
  

• A Let Down
  By on 2003-04-18
  After a big build up of professional reviews and word of mouth, this movie turned out to be a real let down. First, the voiceover narration was distracting; the sound from the film cuts out, there's a pause, and then the narration begins. At first I thought it was an editorial mistake, but when it repeated, I realized it was deliberate -- and weird.

  Second, there was a key ingredient missing from the movie: a character to care about. I didn't care about the boys, or about Louisa. In fact, they all irritated me.

  Third, the ending. The revelation in the final scene felt familiar and forced, as if it was to give the previous hour and a half some kind of meaning. It felt cheap and dated.

  Fourth, a point about the girl, Louisa. The camera does not love her. She is not enjoyable to watch. This may sound petty, but so much of a movie depends on whether you enjoy watching the actors. Take Audrey T. of Amelie. She is wonderful to watch. But the Louisa character was not. She has an awkward way of moving, and her face is not very expressive. An example: There is a scene where she plays a record on a juke box. The camera pulls back as she moves toward us, grooving and dancing. It was startling. She does not know how to move, how to play to the camera. She was not engaging. Again, this may sound petty, but it is an important attribute of an actor to have screen presence, and she does not.

  Finally, the sex. You simply have to address this, because that's a lot of what the hype is about. Well, I saw the "R" version, so I'm not sure I can really comment on it. Others have, so take a look at some of the good points they make about the unrated version. As far as the R version, it was really no big deal, which is why it's rated R. But more importantly, it lacked passion and sensuality. It was sophomoric, as if a 15-year-old boy wrote the screenplay.

  When the movie concluded, I was like, "That was it? That was what everyone's been talking about?" Leave this one to the critics.
  
  

• Truth about life and the lust to live it
  By A2NK7YV3GB74N7 on 2003-10-31
  Fascinating film. The director did a fantasic job in bring many different facets of mexican life to the surface for the viewers o witness. Many ways, the movie was enjoyable, however it is movie that sticks with you and makes you think. The movie in many ways begs to be controversial, provoking, and truthful. It seaks of human nature, and society norms of young teen males. much of the movie conveys how much young youths lust after the pleasures of life: Sex, boasting, and intoxification. In the background and very visible is the contrast between the city life and rural mexico, the contrast of teens microcosm vs. the rest of life. This movie does a great job of displaying what life is like in Mexico. Also, the movie takes you through a journey of two boys friendship as it learns to deal with truths, and learning what happens to lives as we lose trust, as we face the hurts. The movie penetrates the depths of a persons soul and asks you "Do you accept that?", "Could you see yourself doing that?" and what is really important self-respect or friendship. The movie also explores sensuality in different ways, that are real, yet hidden since they deal with uncovering our own shame about the topics.
  This film is worth watching more than once. As negatives, the presentation is a very simple, and at times seem bland and uncreative. However, it was almost like watching a documentary, which in part contributed to the realism of the film.
  
  
• Not a stereotypical film
  By A1V1665EBRC1V9 on 2003-01-07
  On the surface, Y Tu Mama Tambien is a road trip movie. The plot is formulated around two teen boys' and one woman's expedition to a fabled, secluded Mexican beach. The movie carries a good sense of humor like most American road trip movies, but it is not a strict comedy-genre piece. There is an overwhelming realism about the two teens that is often overlooked in American films about adolescence like American Pie or Scream, for instance. They are not characterized by a single role or stereotype and their personalities are realistically conflicting: they fight, make fart jokes, ignore their surroundings, and have moments of real compassion and incredibly mature perception. The Spanish woman that travels with them is also a brilliant characterization. She is incredibly honest and [] liberated. The interaction between this woman (who does not pretend to embody a childlike innocence) and the two teens is revealing and refreshingly uninhibited.

  Y Tu Mama Tambien is really two parallel stories. One is of the road trip of the upper-middle class teens and woman, the other is of the landscape and people that they encounter. There is a voice over during the film that briefly explains the background and/or future of a specific setting. Some of the most interesting storyline happens in the background of the trio's expedition.

  Y Tu Mama Tambien is a worthwhile piece. It is a lively portrait of adventure and human interaction. It deserves praise for its fearless representation of what life is really all about: "to love [] and life!"
  
  

• One version of this movie is great, the other is terrible...
  By A1AA57TR3UKKSP on 2003-04-14
  I am giving this review 3 stars because I know Amazon will apply it to both of the two versions of this movie they sell, the R-rated one and the unrated (probably NC-17) one. Quite simply, the R-rated one (which I saw) is maybe 2 stars, and (according to my wife, a native Mexican) the unrated is 4-5 stars. Hence, an average of 3 stars.

  My wife, a professor of Spanish Literature at a major US university, first saw this movie at a film festival and came home to tell me I had to see it. Well, by & by it came out on DVD and I rented it, picking up the R rate one, not realizing there were two versions. Comparing the technical data, it appears there are 5-6 minutes cut from the original (unrated) version for this R version. As we watched the movie, my wife almost immediately began saying "huh, what's going on?" Almost all of the most explicit scenes were cut. Based upon what my wife said of what they were (I have yet to see the full version), the first few expurgations were of only minor relevance to the plot, but the very final one (most of the scene in the cabana during the last night the boys spent with Luisa on the beach) is absolutely critical to understanding the whole point of the movie, and what happened in the conclusion. Obviously I don't want to say what happened & what was said in that scene missing from the R-rated version, since it would ruin the movie, and I don't want to do that to anyone. As it is, watching this R-rated version has ruined it for me -- sure I can go and look for the unrated one, but it won't be the same now that I already know what will happen.

  Put simply, the R-rated version has a totally incoherent ending due to the cuts made to achieve the R rating. I found it completely unsatisfying, and my wife (who loved the full version, which I presume to be the one on the "unrated" DVD) said she would also have had a totally different opinion of hte movie had she seen only the R-rated one. The unrated is not for the sexually squeamish apparently -- the movie shows male sexuality in a way that Hollywood never would; remember the near NC-17 rating some movie recently almost got because it showed even just a male star's bare behind? -- but for the most part the sexuality is apparently "realistic" and plot-driven, not gratuitous.

  In summary, my wife, who has seen both, would say that if you are willing to "risk" offense at the explicit sexual scenes of the unrated verson, it is a must-see; but if you are nervous and would opt for the R-rated version, don't bother, it is a waste of time. My wife attended the film festival screening (ie unrated version) with a number of colleagues and students, and apprently at least one of the more conservative undergraduates was a bit put off by the masterbatory scene at the beginning, among others.

  A couple other notes on the movie - I found the use of voice-over narration entirely too heavy-handed (my wife is more forgiving of it however). And the quality of the subtitle translation is poor - I speak basic spanish but need subtitles to follow a movie completely, so I tend to be listening and reading at the same time when watching movies such as this. At times the disconnect between what the dialogue and the subtitles said was bewildering.
  
  

• AVOID EDITED VERSION!
  By on 2002-12-08
  ATTENTION! Do not get the R-Rated version of this film! I made the mistake of watching this movie for the first time after having rented it from a certain rental chain that will remain nameless, but which, I unfortunately had forgotten, carries only R-rated imitations of films originally NC-17 or NR.

  Editing may not usually be such a problem, but it ruined the experience for me. In it's original form, this film is PERFECT: uniquely magical, haunting, beautiful, tragic, and all of that good stuff. I envy anyone the experience of watching this film for the first time, and I plead with anyone who is about to do so, please, please, please Do NOT get the edited version. It is an absolute masterpiece as it was originally created, and the MPAA butchered it. I am not saying the R version is bad: it was still incredible, and after watching I went out and got the original version. But, compared with how the film should be seen, it is incredibly unfortunate that the most readily available version is the one that is chopped up.

  Please get this film, but you have to go to an independent rental store, or buy it somewhere, but get the NR version. And do not watch the R version before watching the NR version. I only wish someone had told me the same thing
  
  

• The best coming of age road trip movie ever filmed
  By A3AFLQVLVBS688 on 2004-03-30
  Alfonso Cuaron has created perhaps the best "road trip" movie ever filmed and to think he had a hand in it all, co-write, producing, and directing the film. He has a flawless eye for scenery and specifically the nature of growing up, pain, and internal suffering of human relationships. All this coincides with the growth of his home country of Mexico.

  The story centers around Julio and Tenoch, two very close, best friends despite their two completely different and separate family backgrounds. They are typical immature (...) teenagers. When they meet a beautiful woman, Luisa, who has her own set of problems, they convince her to take a trip to a made up beach. Along the way, they discover themselves personally and grow, and also along the way, we as the audience, can watch the the growth and maturation of the country.

  Y Tu Mama Tambien is a beautiful movie with many levels and loads of symbolism that takes many viewings to appreciate them all. It's definately a movie to own and watch over and over again and appreciate every time.
  
  

• 2 guys, a girl and a great new film.
  By A27CFNHYZG6WS8 on 2002-04-22
  Alfonso Cuaron follows his two fine and individual literary adaptations - 'The Little Princess', 'Great Expectations' - with a modern, 'original' road movie that is more novelistic than either of them. In the ironic mode of 'Magnolia', 'Amelie' and 'The Royal Tennenbaums', the very cinematic action is broken off by a parodically omniscient narrator who provides every scene with more detail than it needs, filling in back-stories, articulating feelings characters don't show, and even inventing futures for them. But whereas this narrative voice in the previous films was a part of their breathless stylistic brio, here it performs a different function. Each narration is announced by a breaking off of the action, a turning down of sound - rather than integrating itself with the overall tone, it breaks it, distancing itself from the comic antics, trusting the extraordinarily natural acting to keep our sympathy with the characters. Though initially jarring, this device provides some of the film's most haunting effects, adding layers of perspective unavailable to young characters only living for the moment, but which may agonise them in hindsight. Time and again, the film's narrow focus - two spoiled kids, who spend all their time joking,bragging about sex, drinking and smoking pot - is opened out to reveal different Mexican lives, lives not quite so privileged. The road movie - the boys are taking their adulterous cousin's wife to a non-existent beach they drunkenly boasted about at a wedding - is a time-honoured vehicle for both a journey into one's developing, maturing character, and also into the state of the nation. So while the Mexico the trio pass through is full of the colour and variety they patriotically boast of, it is also riddled with poverty, institutional racism, police brutality, and signs of death and residual superstition everywhere. At a moment of supreme joy in the story, the narrator will intrude and tell us that such and such a character will lose his job and his home, or that someone died in a road accident etc.

  This device makes us less guilty about enjoying the energy and the wit, the generosity and the hormonally volatile company of two brats, one very rich indeed. When they are having fun, the film sparks with pleasure at life; when they are not, you become impatient with the film's sombreness. These kids need to be well off - only they have the freedome of mobility to travel through the various Mexicos Cuaron wants to show us. They also have the complacency that needs to be tempered. But one of these boys is an inheritor of the Mexican elite - his father is a government minister once linked to a near-genocidal scandal; the President attends the gloriously gaudy wedding of his sister, all bullfighting and mariachis. The boys, for all their sexual exploration, are like two Presidential envoys, investigating and reporting from Mexico, while the real rulers swan off to Washington for conferences about globilisation.

  Critics have compared 'And Your Mother Too' to 'Jules Et Jim', but the disenchanted political element is completely absent from Truffaut's film; a closer precursor would be Blier's Gerard Depardieu classic 'Les Valseuses', another road movie about two sexually obsessed young men who really want each other, and which casts a sharp eye on contemporary France. The difference being that Cuaron cares about women, and his Luisa is a wonderful creation, her own zest for life co-existing with all kinds of pain, fear and betrayal only partially glimpsed through cracked windows by the boys.

  'Mother' shares a continuity with Cuaron's previous films, not just in the theme of young people unmoored from their dubious parentage and heritage, and the bittersweet narrative development, but in his amazing use of space, his ability to turn the domestic and familiar into the creepy and alienating - look at the supermarket high-jinx suddently caught in a vast, alienating long shot. His loose shooting style conceals immensely complicated compositions, framing paralell stories in the one sequence shot or image, to devastating effect, such as Luisa's break-up call to her husband while the companions she can see are reflected beside her playing foozball.
  
  

• Truly disgusting and utterly sinful
  By A1E8LS9TSQ3MJY on 2003-11-19
  This film made me so sick to my stomach, but what's much worse is the fact that people are willing to accept this trash as "normal" behavior. I, for one, do not know a single teenager who did anything close to the "17 year olds" in this filth. But I guess me and my friends were too busy expanding our knowledge instead of burying our faces in carnal desires.

  Question- how do you sell a movie in the year 2003? SEX! Regardless of the consequences. And that's all this film is. There is no plot, and no characters, as far as I'm concerned.
  This movie has no meaning. The sex is meaningless. In my day, sex with someone MEANT something. I simply do not see how this can be called art. And the acting? Please! Its just horrible. Its not art. Trash is all this is.
  
  

• Looking for Truth with the Astral Cowboys
  By A27PSZX2SE0B51 on 2002-05-08
  In his last film, the Ethan Hawke/Gwyneth Paltrow remake of "Great Expectations", I felt like director Alfonso Cuaron wasn't able to fully spread his wings and use all his talents. Hampered by the rigid structure of the book, Cuaron had to scratch and claw to get his beautifully arty shots into the film. That particular tension doesn't exist here. In tackling a road movie like this, one with a searching narrative, Cuaron is able to lead his camera into nooks and crannies as much as he desires, in order to find true cinema rather than just a movie. One shot in particular stands out. After enduring a lengthy conversation at a picnic table, the camera abruptly gets up and leaves, exploring the kitchen area of the restaurant. There it finds a gaggle of old washerwoman, dancing sprightly to the music playing on the radio. It's a moment of pure joy that has nothing to do with the story being told, but doesn't need to. Cuaron also has a fun time, during the many car scenes, letting his camera float from the car to capture crucifix imagery; one is painted on a rock face, another marks a grave. The agnostic in me wanders if he's making a grand religious statement, i.e., the characters must bypass the cross in order to get to Heaven (or rather Heaven's Mouth, the name of a beach that doesn't exist... or does it?). On the other hand, knowing how this all ends, maybe it's a condemnation of their nihilistic ways. A movie that offers paradoxical interpretations through one dominant motif is just fine in my book.

  Cuaron composes his scenes through a series of long cuts. I've always loved this technique, for it allows the director and the actors to subtly build tension over the length of the take, and it creates a voyeuristic feeling in the audience. Cuaron's actors never let the takes stray from the reality of the scene, and for a film dominated by two actors in their early twenties, that is saying something.
  
  Gael Garcia Bernal plays Julio Zapata, and Diego Luna plays Tenoch Iturbide. The boys are real teenagers: animalistic, horny, insensitive, passionate, stupid, etc. But each is exceptional in his own way. Bernal captures lower-class pride, but also envy of his richer friend. Luna, playing the son of a man important enough to invite the President to his daughter's wedding, captures Tenoch's reckless and wasteful rebellion quite well. The boys together are stunning, ably showing the close bond that Julio and Tenoch share. In the beginning they are asked to play scenes that at first strain all credulity (lying next to each other on diving boards, pants down by their ankles, I wondered, "Is this how teenage boys bond these days?"), but given the benefit of hindsight, perfectly show the exact relationship that they share.

  Maribel Verdu plays Luisa Cortes, the older woman who tags along with Julio and Tenoch on their way to the beach. Luisa is a fascinating and complex character, much more than the buxom babe that she at first appears to be. Maribel has to play several scenes where she is crying uncontrollably, and to her credit they never cross the line from stark to maudlin. She also has to become the catalyst for the boys sexual reawakening, and she pulls off the desirability and sensitivity of this part of her character with stunning assurance.

  The sex scenes, and there are four of them, are clumsy, energetic, graphic, and, well, quick (in a sense). The film opens with an unapologetic shot of Tenoch in bed with his girlfriend. She is leaving for Europe the next day, and Tenoch, in mid coitus, makes her promise not to "[sleep with] any Italian guys". It is a perfect note to begin for a film as free and open and immature as this one.

  That being said, most of the film's first third didn't work for me. A clumsy narrator intrudes often to give the audience background information on each of the characters. I'd prefer to be shown this kind of thing than told about it. But eventually, the narrator settles into another function, one that amplifies the film greatly. He starts to break into the action with talk about the characters' unmentioned pasts, then their unmentionable presents, and then their unknowable futures. We find out that one secondary character, a fisherman, will soon be put out of work by the coming influx of commercial fishing companies; seeing this man, happy in his element while the audience knows his fate, is a heartbreaking moment. The film becomes, then, just a snapshot of these people's lives, one that is affected by all that came before, and that truly affects all that comes after. In some very surprising and extreme ways. Be patient with the clumsiness of the beginning, for you will see that it was necessary when you get to the poignant end. This is a fine film that truly gains power upon reflection afterward.
  
  

• Macho chatter, ribald jokes and a very real and human story
  By A17FLA8HQOFVIG on 2002-08-03
  This Mexican film by director Alfonzo Cuaron is about more than the seemingly simple plot. Two teenage boys have just seen their girlfriends off for a summer in Europe. Bored, and with raging hormones, they invite a slightly older woman on a road trip. When she discovers her husband has been cheating on her, she agrees. What follows is funny, bittersweet and filled with outrageous carnal experiences as they travel through a Mexico with wide social and political disparities.

  Gael Garcia Bernal is cast as Julio, the rich boy who attends parties where there are more bodyguards than guests. Diego Luna is his middle-class friend. Both are excellent actors and their macho chatter and ribald jokes kept me giggling throughout. Miribel Verdu is cast as Luisa, who joins them on their trip and teaches them a thing or two about life in general and details of eroticism in particular. She is a sensual beauty and the focus of every scene.

  There is also a voice-over narration, which points out details along the road such as accidents that happened several years ago or the place where a servant in Julio's home had been born. All this is background for the three main characters though, whose joyful romp is filled with fun and erotic discoveries. The dialog is explicit and real and the situations very human.It is not until the ending though that it all gets tied together, and, like the characters, I was sad and yet filled with a sense of completion and a deeper understanding of the fragility of life. Recommended.
  
  

• Hey...isn't that Spanish for "Weird Science" ?
  By A2FEJIORC1MBG3 on 2003-10-30
  This mildly diverting road movie/buddy film from Mexico doesn't break any new cinematic ground, but should make most movie buffs sit up straight for 105 minutes. If you bought all the hype that initially surrounded the film, you are bound to be let down, so it is best to dive in with an open mind and lowered expectations. The story centers around two teenaged pals enjoying that mythical "Last Summer" before college, career and adulthood beckon. The twist comes in the form of an earthy,voluptuous beauty,a slightly older cousin to one of the boys, who takes a break from her troubled marriage to join them on a road trip. At first bemused by thier silly macho posturing and braggidacio regarding thier sexual prowess,the woman tires quickly of the immature chatter and decides to teach them some Life Lessons (for her own enigmatic reasons, which eventually are revealed). The lesson plan mostly involves impulsive and furtive sex between all concerned, followed by the expected jealousies and petty recriminations. This aspect of the film has been played up ad nauseum; the sex scenes are no more shocking or revealing than what we've already been watching in European films for years (in fact, the film's opening shot struck me as an homage to "Betty Blue"). Once again, by the end of the film, you probably won't feel like you've just had a life-changing epiphany, but you won't neccessarily feel you've wasted your time either.
  
  
• hahahahahaha
  By on 2003-05-01
  Wow. You think people would learn after the horrendous Great Expectations (Gweneth Paltrow emotes like an anoerexic Valley Girl), Hollywood would have learned to not let this director near another project. But no such luck---and once again, he decided that a good story wasn;t worth it, so he manipulates it to a degree unheard of before this.
  Working with only the brainlessness Hollywood joke can, he decides to insult us by claiming uniqueness and making the story set in Mexico. Then he adds two boys for one girl so we can watch a feminist version of a good time--sleeping around.
  There is the only thing that garners praise in hollywood---sex. As long as you call it beautiful, they'll love you. Not surprising from a group of people so empty they decided to make American Pie and Can't hardly Wait.
  Hilariously bad. Can't wait for the sequel--And Your Little Dog, Too.
  
  
• Nadie es profeta en su tierra (Nobody is prophet in his land
  By ARYH4TGIGMHS9 on 2003-03-25
  I'm from Mexico, when i go to the theatre to look this movie, i was shocked about the explicit sexual images (it's not weird that it goes "UNRATED" in US); some months before its debut, Alfonso & Carlos Cuaron (directors) made a big controversy about the rating of this movie... here in mexico, this movie received a "C" rating (something like a R rating in the US) and he wanted a "B" rating (something like the PG rating in the US).

  Here in mexico, a lot of people considered this movie very, very bad. When this movie arrived to US and other coutries, it was a big success (why? i really don't know, don't ask me!); perhaps was its story?, the "wonderful" acting of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia? or the "great" sound mix?, nah!, maybe was its explicit sex on screen and the kiss between Dielo Luna and Gael Garcia in one scene...avoid this movie (that are closer to a NC-17 or XXX movie than a R rated movie) disguised as a "maesterpiece" nominated for "Best original script" in the academy awards, (but affortunatelly it didn't win); if you want better mexican movies, search for "Amores Perros", "La ley de herodes", "El callejon de los milagros", or any from the 40's and 50's era.
  
  

• Don't waste your time
  By A2DESJOB58BXXV on 2004-04-16
  You've got a gorgeous woman who has caught her husband cheating and wants to get revenge by going off with these two boys in their late teens -- and she wants to
  have sex with both of them, wants to have a wild, romping, revenge filled weekend with these two boys -- should be good, right? Wrong. The two guys can't get it together -- they're too busy being annoying. Finally, she takes control, but in two very brief secenes, each of them proves sexually "inept." And that's the nice way to put it. This is not sexy. This is not "steamy." These boys are annoying. They annoy her [and us] so much, she gives up on her orginal goal. She ends up telling them to be quiet and stop annoying her. In a final scene, when she gives them another chance, this time at a threesome, they are more interested [and adept] in kissing each other -- end of scene -- end of movie. This is the movie, folks.
  
  
• A Journey to Heaven's Mouth
  By A23GFTVIETX7DS on 2004-12-18
  This Spanish language film (with English subtitles) has a coarse charm that goes a long way to garnering fans. Two teenage boys, Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal), are adrift when their girlfriends leave for an Italian vacation. They smoke pot, talk sex, scheme, talk sex. When they meet Luisa the willowy wife of Tenoch's cousin, they cannot believe their good fortune - especially because she agrees to accompany them on a trip to an isolated, gorgeous beach called Heaven's Mouth. No matter that they made up Heaven's Mouth to impress her; they are going. Their journey creates a bond among the three, not only sexually but emotionally, that we know will always be a part of them. In several graphic scenes that stop short of hard-core porn, the characters discover that sex is both everything and not everything.
  
  The film's stamp of individuality is the witty, deadpan narration. Strangely, the scenes stop for a second or two, frozen and completely silent, before the voice-over begins. This roughness of editing actually adds to the film's charm by avoiding the slickness many of us are used to seeing in Hollywood films. Gritty background shots of Mexico add context to these spoiled boys' adventure - and hint to the underlying reality of Luisa's motivation. (Astute viewers will know right away what motivates her, but this knowledge only adds to the poignancy.) Although this is often dubbed a "coming of age film", I never got the impression that the boys grew up until long after their experiences. To them, it was a lark and a test of their friendship; only later, when they have already grown apart, do they see what it all meant.
  
  Perhaps because everything in this movie anticipates sex, I found that it was missing the depth I expect of acclaimed films. Despite this, it was an enjoyable on-the-road story, with disarming and very natural acting. Recommended for adults only.
  
  
• Silly Mexican soft porn
  By on 2003-03-13
  After reading a few reviews, I went off to see Y Tu Mama Tambien with high expectations. What a let-down! The film delivered very little save the dying sexual desires of a Spanish woman with cancer accompanied by two brain-dead Mexican boys bent on attempting to become over-sexed any way they can. Great movie if you enjoy degenerate Mexican soft porn.
  
  
• Three thumbs down, if you get my drift ...
  By on 2003-10-17
  A big disappointment. This review, by the way, won't contain anything new. It's just a negative vote against a movie that richly deserves a negative vote for the following reasons:

  1.) the hype. I was led to believe this was a movie worth my time and money. It was not.

  2.) the sex. I am not a prude, but sex comprised the entire universe of this tale and was run so ragged that it started to go putrid. Even the simplest mammals have something to think about outside of sex, sex and more sex. I guess the director cut out the defecating scenes because they weren't in good taste.

  3.) the cliche ending. After a wallow in filth we are supposedly elevated to consider the evanescence of life with a stale old trick for rendering poignancy into the meaning of life. Give me a break.

  The public relations people who plugged this flick do deserve a round of applause for their accomplishment. There is where the true brilliance of this movie lies. No doubt about it. There's plenty of garbage out there that can be parlayed into bogus 'art' and real money with the right connections and a lot of imagination.

  Now a movie about THAT might be worth watching.
  
  

• Erotic Existentialism
  By A11PTCZ2FM2547 on 2004-04-08
  I didn't know erotic existentialism existed, yet somehow director Alfonso Cuaron found a way to combine the plight of the human condition with steamy scenes that will melt your beer mug in his film Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN.

  Seventeen-year-old pals Tenoch and Julio are hormone-driven, annoying boys with too much time on their hands. When by chance at a wedding they meet the wife of Tenoch's cousin, a much older woman named Luisa (played exquisitely by a hauntingly beautiful Maribel Verdu), the stage is set for a powerful coming-of-age story, as the boys ask their new friend to accompany them to a secluded beach. Once Luisa consents, and the road trip begins, this film powerfully, and at times humorously, explores the facade of resisted temptations--of a friendship put to the test. . .of a friendship that might be more than just a friendship.

  Intertwined throughout the compelling cinematography, steamy erotica, and adolescent nonsense is a dark element of fatalistic existentialism--an element in the form of a narrator--that serves to remind the viewer this is no lightweight "American Pie" spoof. There are times when the dialogue cuts away and the narrator takes over; the somber voice tells stories of tragedy and suffering, past and present, on the part of people we will never get to know--people who are mentioned only because of their proximity to the main characters. Powerful, powerful stuff.

  As much as I liked the film, I did have a few problems. The two teenagers at times were so irritating I kept wanting to tell them to go to their rooms. We learn so much about Luisa's background via the narrator, but learn very little about why she made the choices she did late in the film--especially given the immaturity of her companions. And there's a tragedy at the end that comes out of nowhere. . .but is consistent with the bleak undercurrent of the film.

  Spoken in Spanish, subtitled in English, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN is riveting entertainment. The DVD contains a short feature entitled "Me la debes," which takes infidelity to a whole new level, and ultimately proves it's a small world, after all. Due to the explicit materials, this DVD is for adults only. Make sure your heart medication is up to date before viewing.
  --D. Mikels
  
  

• This is a coming of age film?
  By A15MX8YJMBNDB0 on 2005-09-04
  I'll admit it was decent for a cheap Mexican film with a bunch of unknowns, but how is this a coming of age film? What exactly does that mean anyways? We live in a time of terrorism, war, violence, so does that make Dawn of the Dead a coming of age film too? It seems to me that teen sex, when viewed by more liberal crowds, instantly portrays a positive image of coming of age. But for others such as myself, you need a plot and characters to go along with it, not just sex for sex's sake, which is all this film is. Where are the consequences in Y Tu Mama Tambien? Where's the story, what's the story? Without these, it's just soft porn.
  
  
• Sets a new standard for "road trip" films
  By AYWIO6OYAGFGQ on 2002-10-24
  Of course, it's more than a "road trip" film, but the action does revolve around a long car trip to the ocean. The performances by the three main characters are outstanding because they don't seem like performances at all. The two guys talk the way real people do, interrupting each other, elaborating on something the other said, like two eager puppies trying to impress the older woman. She does a brilliant job of transforming herself from a virginal and naive wife of one of the boy's cousins, into a self-sufficient, independent woman who no longer tolerates the boys' nonsense.

  The movie shifts from being an exuberant celebration of youthful excess, to a more thoughtful and profound exploration of the nature of each of the three main characters. The last 20 minutes are a surprising conclusion, but totally in keeping with the rest of the film.

  This is definitely a movie that engages the viewer from the very beginning and does not let go until long after the closing credits. I have found myself thinking about this movie much more than I usually do and am looking forward to watching it again very soon.

  The video transfer is excellent, as is the Spanish Dolby surround audio track. Subtitles are generally well done, with colloquial English translations that are reasonable equivalents of the slang that permeates the film. There are very few extras on the DVD, but that's not really a problem. A film like this stands on its own.
  
  

• Unmet low expectations
  By A2GK9DIGJAIUI8 on 2002-11-20
  Road trip? Sure, but really no one matures--at least not that you can tell Sex-crazed adolescents? Absolutely, but you see those all over these days. Sad? Well, by the end I really didn't care about any character (except maybe the pigs). Hilarious? No, although I laughed at the beginning. Sexy? Not really, but you do see some skin. [I agree with the reviewer who thought more salaciousness would have helped this picture.]

  So the guys are obsessed with sex. They don't change their behavior and it's really hard to figure out what the director or writer are trying to say. Well, they do learn that they are both like to have sex with the other's girlfriend. I didn't gain any sympathy for them in the end. [The kiss at the end made me hopeful that something interesting might come out of it, but in the end that fails too.] All in all, rather standard fair.

  And what can I say about the Spaniard? Is she any better than the boys? Not that I can tell. Personally, I could imagine any number of better ways to live one's final days, but playing into adolescent fantasies really does not top the list. In fact, it doesn't make the list. [OK, going to the beach would be there somewhere.]

  Oh, and the narrator. Poor device. The rule of any good story: show us don't tell us. The exposition just serves to keep the director and writer from having to actual develop a well-thought out scene. And getting insight into Mexico. Well, I have my doubts. I thought the visuals of the film (particularly the contrast between middle-class Mexico City and the rural areas) were good enough. And each time the narrator was about to speak, I thought the sound had gone out on my TV.

  About the cinematography. Excellent. In fact, I think you could turn down the sound (and in my case turn off the subtitles), fast forward through the acting bits and just enjoy some of the wonderful images.

  I had heard about this film from a lot of people. Most loved it. I wasn't going to go that far because I've been burned by "art" films before. So I didn't expect much. Unfortunately, even that was not delivered.

  So, to be brief, my review can be summed up thus: Please don't make me watch this movie again!
  
  

• Amores Perros
• The Motorcycle Diaries (Widescreen Edition)
• Sex and Lucia (Unrated Edition)
• City of God
• The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)