Review of Y Tu Mamá También (2001) by Tom J — 18 Sep 2008

The movie works best as a social commentary on life in Mexico as the three characters Tenouch, Julio and Luisa seem oblivious to the poverty that surrounds them (an aspect of Mexico hard for the audience to ignore because of the effective use of an all-knowing outside narrator).

The movie also gives an honest, nonjudgmental look into the minds of the two 17 year olds Tenoch and Julio and the degree to which you enjoy the movie probably depends on how much you relate to to their world where they spend a lot of their time taking drugs, having sex or talking about having sex.

I was clearly more underwhelmed than the critics. The character of Luisa, part mother figure, part seductress is an interesting one. The movie also gets unexpectedly poignant at the end. But the road trip to the mythical Heaven's Mouth beach, in which the conversations of the teenage boys and the older (28 year old) Luisa rarely moved off the subject of sex, became tedious to me.