Review: Y tu mamá también (2001)
Michael Zwirn
movie that you're likely to see from Hollywood, but a good deal more
thoughtful (as well as explicit). A monumental commercial hit in Mexico,
this film uses the structure of a teen raunch comedy‹going into detail far
racier than any American film could‹to explore some more difficult
political, societal and cultural issues.
The two teen leads are Gael Garcia Bernal as Julio Zapata, a kid of modest
means whose sister is a leftist activist at the national university, and
Diego Luna as Tenoch Iturbide, the son of a politician and millionaire who
lives in luxury. Their lives, as they graduate from high school, consist
of pot smoking, drinking, sex, listening to rock and roll, and playing
video games. At a wedding party in Tenoch's family, they encounter the
attractive Spanish wife of a distant cousin, Luisa, played by Maribel
Verdu. That chance encounter, and Luisa's dissatisfaction at home, leads
the three on a road trip across Mexico to the ocean and a mystical beach
that probably doesn't even exist. There is abundance of drink, drugs, sex,
jokes about bodily functions, and vulgarity along the way. So far, it
could be American Pie in a car, with subtitles. But a combination of
thoughtful (to the point of overserious) narration describing the fates of
characters, and depictions of the characters' interactions with rural
Mexican poverty, makes Y Tu Mamá more interesting and impressive. Alfonso
Cuaron's direction is very solid, and the film uses stock comedic settings
and often graphic language and images to flesh out the characters and
their motivations.
In terms of rating, this film (unrated in the US) would be a hard R, or
perhaps NC-17, on the basis on the images and language, but it's all quite
good-natured even if very explicit.
This was shown at the Portland International Film Festival.
--
Michael Zwirn, Environmental Policy Analyst
mic...@zwirn.com
Prentiss Riddle
Lots of levels and lots of detail to enjoy here: not only the sexy
coming-of-age story with an underlay of personal tragedy; there's
also the languorous look at Mexican pop culture, landscape, class
divisions and, perhaps most of all, the language gap between the
two young chilangos and their gachupina companion. (See the nifty
chilango glossary from the "Y tu mamá también" website.)
Between this and "Amores perros", Mexican art cinema really seems to
be coming of age. The few art house exports of previous years like
"Doña Herlinda y su hijo", "Como agua para chocolate" and "Cronos"
covered some of the same ground but seemed more constrained by budget
and technical limitations, not to mention much less hip -- at least
to the eyes of this old gringo.
Let's hope there's lots more to come. IMDB shows "Y tu mamá" director
Alfonso Cuarón's upcoming projects as all being Hollywood productions
in English, but "Amores Perros" director Alejandro González Iñárritu
does have one project which looks like it's worth keeping an eye on
under the title "21 gramos".
(I'm crossposting this to soc.culture.mexican. Maybe folks there
can inform us about good Mexican art house movies which didn't make
it across the Rio Bravo.)
Links and discussion at:
http://www.io.com/~riddle/movies/?item=20020502
-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada")
-- rid...@io.com / http://www.io.com/~riddle/