| Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN And Your Mother Too |
 2001 -
MexicoDirector: Alfonso Cuarón - Reviewed by Tim
Maybe I didn't get the intricacies of the story, since the Spanish was at such a speed that I had a hard time keeping up and, oftentimes, the two main characters were speaking at the exact same time. The more I think about it; there would be no way for the subtitles to have kept up with the dialogue, so there could be the root of some of the confusion. If your limited Spanish comprehension is catching one thing and your eyes are reading something different, that might make it a little less of a positive experience. I've heard that some little things may have been changed since I saw it, so that opens up the door for a second viewing. The story is about Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), two teens living with their families in Mexico City. While their girlfriends are traveling around Europe for the summer, the duo has a lot of time to raise hell and find things to occupy themselves, but ultimately end up doing the normal teenage stuff. If tossing off with your best friend is a normal thing to do, well then, they are as normal as they come (so to speak). They seem to do that quite often. The two are from two different social classes, which puts a spin on their friendship. Although one lives in the surroundings of wealth, the other lives in relative poverty, they find common ground to relate to each other. While at a family wedding, they are both drawn to the same woman (Maribel Verdú), and after talking to her, find she is married to Julio's cousin. They invite Luisa (Verdú) to go with them on a camping trip to a beach called "Heaven's Mouth" and this is where the story line becomes a bit confusing and the characters become quite mean-spirited. The roadtrip to the imaginary beach pits the boys against each other in an attempt to get the attention of Luisa, and in turn, Luisa seems to thrive on the attention. Luisa has a sad and somewhat brooding attitude through most of the film that makes you wonder what's going on inside her head. This film has the slice-of-life feel that I tend to like, and some good pacing, but I didn't quite get that it was a sex comedy to rival American Pie.... (Read Linda's positive review of the film.) |
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I saw this film in October 2001 at a lesbian and gay film festival,
which
may have been the wrong target audience. With the current buzz about this
movie,
this had to be a coup for the festival organizers. As it was the sneak
preview of the festival, I was able to find very little information
about
the film at the time. Since then, I've heard only rave reviews for the
story
and acting. I'm beginning to feel that I saw a totally different movie
that
the rest of the world. There has been international praise for Y Tu Mamá
También so I seem to have missed something. Maybe I need to see this movie
again and
rethink the whole thing, but as it stands, I'll have to stand behind my
words and get pummeled by the masses....
