Review of Y Tu Mamá También (2001) by Frances Ann A — 05 Feb 2014

Schizoid road trip movie about two unattractive, spoiled narcissistic teenaged boys, Julio & Tenoch, with zero responsibilities or consciences, and Luisa, a disillusioned wife, who go on a road trip to the beach.

Julio & Tenoch are completely unappealing as characters, and the actors portraying them are not especially attractive either. The sex scenes although explicit (not a plus for me), are not very steamy.

Selfishness really isn't very appealing when all is said & done, and honestly, I was hoping someone in the film would horsewhip those boys! As uninteresting as is the basic story, the film comes across as schizoid because it attempts to provide commentary, sometimes through outright narration, at other times it is woven into the background scenery more subtly, but this attempt to provide a philosophical or political subtext distances us even further from caring about the characters.

Worse still, the commentary doesn't seem to go anywhere. Much of it doesn't seem to have any point, ie. do we really care that we are told there was a fatal car accident on some part of the road which the protagonists drive across on their trip? The opening voiceovers lead us to assume a level of depth in character development which simply never materializes, as if the film-makers tried to paste some other agenda on top of a simple sex & pot saga.

It was a waste of an evening, and left me with a nasty taste in my mouth.