It’s a shame Hollywood can’t make a movie like this.
Y tu mam? tambi?n superficially may be just another road trip with friends, but in reality, this sexually-charged movie delves into adolescent self-discovery with striking realism.
This subtitled Mexican film (And Your Mother Also in English) by director Alfonso Cuar?n (Great Expectations and A Little Princess) is not for the conservative soul with its inordinate amounts of sex, nudity and expletives. Yet somehow the intensity of these controversial topics gives the movie a realistic flair that allows the characters to shine as humans, not glorified stereotypes.
The movie follows two teen-agers Julio (Gael Garci? Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) as they embark on a road trip through the Mexican countryside, joined by 28-year-old Luisa (Maribel Verd?), who flees from her cheating husband. In search of a mythical beach named Heaven’s Mouth, the trio is forced to confront their raw emotions-fear, love and hate-all the while discovering the depth of their relationships.
With little action in the movie, the trio’s conversations drive the real story. These characters are real-no pretense, no scripted lines, no Hollywood fluff.
Tenoch, the son of a corrupt politician, and Julio, from a middle-class family, have a strong friendship that seems unbreakable.
The movie holds nothing back about these boys’ lives-they like sex, smoke pot and cuss like sailors. While not a reflection of every American or Mexican teen-ager, these characters don’t seem exaggerated or even excessive but simply hormonal teen-agers confused about their future and trying to discover themselves.
Add Luisa to the mix and the hormones flare up. Upon meeting Luisa at a wedding, Tenoch and Julio seem like bumbling idiots in light of to her grace. After learning of her husband’s affairs, she quickly accepts the boys’ offer for a trip to Heaven’s Mouth. Along the way, her grace and poise are quickly forgotten as Luisa playfully pokes and prods into the boys’ sex lives-stimulating an already charged atmosphere.
Throughout the movie, the narrator (Daniel Gimen?z Cacho) breaks into the scene with a voice-over, as the action freezes and the music stops.
The voice-overs reinforce the distance that the narrator creates between himself and the characters. The movie simply presents three individuals and allows the audience to make the judgments.
While the trio travels through the Mexican countryside, Cuar?n uses the opportunity to give subtle social commentary. Whether a police roadblock, a herd of cattle or the fisherman whose home will be destroyed, the pervasive poverty throughout Mexico becomes apparent. And while never teetering on preachiness, the commentary is made and absorbed.
But this movie is more than social commentary and more than a simplistic plot. This film is about friendship and discovery. It’s about that summer everyone wanted to have as a youth. It’s about that older woman everyone dreamed about. It’s about two friends believing they are inseparable. And it’s about growing up.
There are no happy endings in this movie, no unhappy endings. The bittersweet ending that notes, “nothing would ever be the same again” strikes a chord of reality in the hearts of everyone who has experienced self-discovery.
This movie is not for everyone, but it is for anyone who longs to see something different, something inspiring and something that leaves the audience thinking. Playing at the Tivoli Theatre, Y tu mam? tambi?n far outweighs the happy endings of Hollywood. Grade: A-
