Review of Y Tu Mamá También (2001) by Jake R — 16 Aug 2009

With 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' Latin Cinema proved it could do Truffaut as well as Tarantino. 1998's poetic road movie 'Central do Brasil' ignited a renaissance in Central and South American cinema, an industry that had not seen any real glory since the early 1970s. With 2000's 'Amores Perros' the world sat up and watched as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu did a Tarantino picture than the main man himself had done for years and paved the way for dozens of wannabes to get in on the Latin New Wave. With 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' this renaissance showed it had more to offer than just a stylish mode of violence.

Reworking 'Jules et Jim' for the early 21st century, Cuaron's own road movie is a delicious cocktail, full of witty observances about young life in turn of the millennium Mexico. This youth is the first generation of kids too interested in life's pleasures to try and achieve something for themselves, favouring to get high rather than get a job, something pretty much everyone in the world does these days. But the young are also politically astute, as befits an country in the Americas, and usually that political stance is one of cynical apathy at the childishness of it all. The film wisely avoids any comment of its own, simply preferring to extol the virtues of not really caring since it's never that important.

Indeed what is important is the proper growth and maturation of a person as an individual. Tenoch and Julio start the picture as typically sex-mad brats, thinking they can take on anything because they do drugs, sleep around and generally talk big instead of thinking about it. But gradually they learn to respect and care rather than be exclusively selfish, Luisa's fariness and individual strength fighting back their sexual impulsives in favour of just wanting to hang out with her. As it turns out, their sessions with her are more humiliating than fulfilling, their incomptence revealing their inexperience to the amused Luisa. With both boys removed of their supposed sexual prowess, the badge of honour of their strict masculinity, all that's left is jealousy, and that's when the confessions start and when the real nature of friendship is truly tested. In the end, like Luisa says, it's easier and more enjoyable to give yourself away to life's sea, since no one is ever totally right or wrong, and no one ever knows anything, so why try and attempt it?

Though it sounds like it, it's not a hippy pic. Luisa's mantra comes from a haunting last-minute detail about her life, and as such it seems less of a nihilistic wish-fulfilment and more of a warning to not treat life so seriously because regrets always leave lasting scars of unhappiness. It's more poignant telling to the young best friends, with whole, long lives ahead of them despite their attitudes that they're within their prime.

This progression and maturity is mirrored in the sex scenes. Opening mid-session with Tenoch and Ana, the sex is fast, inelegant and definitely amateurish, a symbol of the hyper-active lifestyle the boys lead when everything is only a quick fix until the next one. Mid way the boys get it on with Luisa and are knocked for six when they find a woman who is more skilled and can out last them. For that their inflated egos are seriously redrawn and they begin to question the need to act so desperate. The final threesome is perhaps the steamiest scene in the whole film, beginning with drunken laughs at a party and ending with a homosexual embrace between to two friends. But it's not the scruffy rutting from before, it's a far gentler experience, and one of real, sensitive love. Needless to say, waking to find themselves in each other's arms more than helps to bring up that hangover vomit, just one of many priceless moments of comedy, sometimes with a playful sourness, most of the time the kind of low-brow laughs one expects from teenage boys.

But what makes 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' more than just a Latin 'Road Trip' with some European intellectualism is the film's emotional side. Even in the opening intercourse there's a softness to the body language and the tones of voice, later mirrored in the virulent rage as the two boys explode over their infidelities. One standout moment is when Luisa points out a teddy that has her name and the ancient lady beside her compliments her on its simple beauty. A moment like that is worth a thousand of any kind contrived in any Western 'indie movie' in a cheap attempt to appear worthwhile, and it's one that comes off with such truthfulness, the most important rule of the duo's 'Charolastra' brotherhood.

And as a significant work of art the film excels all the more because of the astounding performances, each one a savouring joy. Diego Luna as the privileged Tenoch brings together a rather contradictory mix of sensitivity at outright lasciviousnes, while Gael Garcia Bernal, fresh off his fantastic debut in 'Amores Perros', is terrific as the pretty boy spoiled by his vulgar mouth. Together the two come off perfectly as the best friends they are in real life and can more than handle the difficult scenes without resorting to unpleasant melodrama. Arguably the most important success is Maribel Verdu as the statuesque Luisa. At times diminuitive, others commanding, others motherly, and always always incredibly sexy, she is a virtual goddess in using her feminity and intelligence to counter the boy's overwhelming swagger, mostly by playing them at their own prurient game. That final threesome between their combined sizzling sexual chemistry and their delicately formed relationships makes for the sexiest sex scene in a very long time, before or since.

Travelling through some truly breathtaking Mexican scenery and soundtracked by a narration that provides small, concise details about these lives that compliments rather than tells the story, and this is one of the best films about young people and the desire and nature to be young ever made. Savour it like a particularly vivid and fiery shot of tequila.