Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN

-By Eric Monder

For movie details, please click here.

Alfonso Cuaron, the director of Great Expectations and The Little Princess, together with his screenwriting brother Carlos, creates a witty, poignant, politically astute coming-of-age tale in Y Tu Mamá Tambin. The story involves two teenage Mexican friends, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), who enjoy the pleasures of youth, having sex with their girlfriends and smoking pot out of sight of their strict, middle-class parents. When the girlfriends take off for an Italian holiday, Julio and Tenoch think about philandering. At a party given by Tenoch's corrupt politician father, the boys meet Luisa (Maribel Verdu), the lovely wife of Tenoch's obnoxious older cousin, Jano (Juan Carlos Remolina). When Luisa learns of Jano's sexual indiscretions, she accepts the teenagers' invitation to go away on a trip to a beach called Heaven's Mouth. The only problem is that Julio and Tenoch have fabricated the existence of the beach as a ploy to influence Luisa to join them.

As the threesome travel along the Mexican roads, they share intimate stories and enjoy one another's company, although the boys become reluctant to make a play for the older Luisa. At one stop, however, Luisa makes her own play for Tenoch. Later, she thinks her lovemaking has caused a rift in the male bond, when, in fact, the boys are fighting because Julio has told Tenoch he once slept with his girlfriend. Luisa tries to balance the situation by making love to Julio, but it is not until after she gets angry at both teenagers for their immature behavior that the three settle back into a comfortable, friendly relationship.

Finally, to Tenoch and Julio's utter surprise, they reach a beach really called Heaven's Mouth and they have a spirited, sexually liberating experience that night. The next day, a more sober Tenoch and Julio return home, ready to re-evaluate their friendship, while Luisa, who decides to leave Jano for good, stays on at the beach. Some months later, sad news alters the reflections about the road trip.

Y Tu Mamá Tambin (which translates from Spanish as 'And your mama, too') could have been just another smirking road picture/sex comedy along the lines of Losin' It, the 1982 film with three teenage boys and an older woman on a Mexican adventure. The plot outline is also reminiscent of Bertrand Blier's controversial, arguably misogynist Going Places. Actually, the film, which is breaking box-office records in Mexico, takes a thoughtful, sensitive and sophisticated approach, cutting through the latent homosexual implications of most buddy movies and conferring a feminist spirit to the Luisa character. Thus, Y Tu Mamá Tambin more evokes films of the caliber of Truffaut's Jules and Jim and Fassbinder's 'anti-road-trip' road-trip movie, Rio Das Mortes (as well as Manuel Poirier's recent Western). Somehow, Cuaron's film also integrates engaging but pointed sociopolitical commentary about class, wealth and the Mexican economy.

The melancholy conclusion to Y Tu Mamá Tambin provides a hauntingly teleological effect, elevating the story to an even more spiritual realm. The lead performances are exquisitely natural and all the production elements are in perfect harmony.

Y Tu Mamá Tambin is one of the best films of this year's New York Film Festival.

--Eric Monder