Y tu mamá también (And Your Mother Too)

Released 2001
Stars Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

"Y tu mamá también" wastes no time and opens in the middle of a frantic sex scene between Tenocha and his girlfriend. It then shifts to his best friend, Julio, who has a frantic quickie with his girlfriend in her bedroom. Both girls are headed to Europe for the summer, which will leave the boys free to lounge around doing drugs and trying to score with the chicks. The boys then settle into a routine that involves a lot of whacking off (don't swim in the pool) and a little growing homosexual tension, but that's not the point of the film. They later invite Luisa to join them on a road trip to a fictional beach in hopes they can score with her, but she's an older woman who's married to Tenocha's cousin. After learning her husband has cheated on her again, Luisa leaves him and joins the boys on the trip. They then pass through rural Mexico on a three-day journey to the beach, and this gives director Alfonso Cuarón a chance to make observations about his country. It also gives the boys a chance to learn some proper behavior from an older woman, and Luisa is able to feel young again. Their conversations usually center around sex, and they're as frank and straightforward as the rest of the film is toward sex. College-aged boys are obsessed with sex and living in the moment, and it all feels very real. Many people will find this entire film shocking or "pornographic," because there are a lot of uptight people who feel the rest of us must live under their religious beliefs. This movie gives them the finger and tells them to shut the **** up, and I applaud it for that. I appreciate movies that are free to do what they want and don't play by the rules. I may not enjoy them, but I appreciate them. Along those lines, I enjoyed the voice-overs in the movie that tell about past, present or future events that may or may not be related to the story. It was a different style to completely overlay the audio track with the voice-over (instead of lowering the volume of the main track), and I congratulate Cuarón for finding a new twist on an old device.

It's the storyline of Luisa and Maribel Verdú's performance that elevates the movie above an adult-themed road trip. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but Luisa's storyline is poignant as it unfolds, because it's telegraphed. She discusses life and death quite often, so I felt she was headed to suicide. She's not, but it was clear she didn't have much time left. The one part of the movie that left me confused, though, was the final sex scene with the boys. There were also hints about this, but I didn't understand the result afterward. I felt there was a mutual attraction, but it seems there wasn't even a one-sided attraction. Mescal (tequila) can form attractions between anyone, but Luisa kept steering the two together. I thought it was because she knew they needed a push to realize what they both wanted, but that wasn't true. So, the ending left me scratching my head, but it's an entertaining film.

Summary by Bill Alward, February 9, 2003

By the way, I haven't seen anyone mention the film's title. It's a strange one, and it comes from a line of dialogue near the end. If you're not paying attention, you may miss it. It's when Julio tells Tenocha that he had sex with Tenocha's mother as well as... Well, I don't want to spoil any surprises.