Y Tu Mama Tambien: 8/10

Y tu mamá también (2001)
A benchmark in Mexican cinema, and a bookmark for Mexican culture, youth, and politics

Decades from now, if there is a movie to show to describe how youth life in Mexico is life at the turn of the millennium, this one would be it. Re-launching the career of director Alfonso Cuaron, Y Tu Mama Tambien is an explicit film full of politics, subtle commentary, and sex. This movie is also a tough pill to swallow, as it showcases rough emotions, rough dialogue, tough moments of truth, and an overwhelming amount of sexual tension and material. If you can get past the intensity and frank content, then it's a good film to watch. But, this movie is not for the shy, not for the easily-embarrassed, and not for those that lack an open mind. View at your own risk. Don't let it scare you too much though, because this movie is full of heart, humor, and beautiful drama.

Everyone has that one major moment in their life when they realize they must grow up, they must do something different in their life. Every person (that eventually matures) goes through that one period of time when ugly realizations open up, leading to them drastically changing. Before jumping to the mature stage, the edge or blockade to leap from must occur. In Y Tu Mama Tambien, we follow a road trip led by three people that deflowers into a plethora of emotions, ugly truths, and sudden realization of mortality. Two young horny teenagers (Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal) with nothing better to do in their lives attempt to convince a beautiful older woman (Maribel Verdu) to accompany them on a trip to the beach. What starts as a harmless attempt to have sex with this woman winds up opening up deep dark secrets that threaten the extremely strong friendship and bond between the two boys.

Written by the director and his brother Carlos Curaon, this film not only feels very realistic and close to the heart, but also gets meshed in with the political turmoil happening at the time and taps into what was going on in Mexican youth culture. With Mexico having problems in its government for years, very few realize that those most affected are the next generation of leaders and movers, the young adults. The splitting class systems and constant political turmoil was leaving the Mexican youth in a Generation-X state of mind. This movie reveals all this in a matter of 105 minutes, and for that reason this is one of the better original scripts released in a decade.

It is not just the writing that's very gritty; the acting is fantastic as well. I personally believe some of the toughest scenes you could possibly act in are sex scenes, and especially when there are no clothes and no camera tricks to hide the action. A lesser group of actors would have trouble delivering a decent performance when having to reveal it all and engage in graphic sexual scenes, but the three main actors were flawless in their performance. You can feel their tension, you can feel their rage, and sympathize with them when they are at their absolute lowest. The chemistry amongst the three is impressively strong, giving the movie a near documentary feel. Road trip movies always require that the audience can remain interested and invested in the characters involved at all times, and Y Tu Mama Tambien definitely delivers.

After a stint of failures, Alfonso Curaon went back to the basics with this movie, ultimately delivering the best directing performance of his career. No shot is ever too long or too short, as he does a superb job visually showing the beauty of Mexico within its fragile status. His directing of the sex scenes were most impressive, as they hold nothing back in a physical scene, while at the same time still deliver the emotions. Sex scenes rarely deliver drama and reveal character traits (usually…its to make the men happy inside), but Y Tu Mama Tambien's assortment of explicit scenes happen for a reason—they are not used for show. While some of the dialogue could have been cut, making this a shorter film, Curaon did a fantastic job directing his script.

Bottom Line: An amazing look at turn-of-the-century Mexico, Y Tu Mama Tambien is an emotionally-driven road trip through a beautiful country marred by politics, reputation, and ugly stereotypes. There's so much more to Mexico then just Hispanics angry at their government and trying to head to the States; here is a country rich with culture, history, beauty, and unfortunate uncertainty. Few movies can represent their city well, and fewer movies can accurately portray entire countries well. But, Y Tu Mama Tambien accomplishes just that with a blend of fantastic writing, excellent acting, and great directing. One of the best road trip movies you'll ever see, I recommend this Mexican cinematic modern classic as long as your eyes can tolerate graphic sexual content and graphic nudity. Otherwise, you'll be missing out on a good film that's rough along the artistic edges.