Title:Y Tu Mama
Tambien (And Your Mother Too) Director:Alfonso Cuarón Genre:Drama Country of Origin:Mexico Year: 2001 Rating: R Time: 106 minutes
Grade: ★★★½
Y Tu Mama Tambien is a 2001 Mexican film directed by Alfonso
Cuarón. It stars Diego Luna (Milk, The Terminal, Dirty Dancing: Havana
Nights), Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, Casa de
Mi Padre) and Maribel Verdú (Pan's Labyrinth, The
Alamo). The film is a coming of age story involving best friends Julio and
Tenoch (played by Bernal and Luna respectively) who go on a road trip with the
much older Luisa (played by Verdú) which secrets and trust are tested in one
unforgettable summer. The film is known
most popularly for bringing director Alfonso Cuarón fame. If the director
doesn't sound familiar, it should. Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film Gravity has
been the number one movie in America for three weeks in a row. He has also
directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban and Children
of Men. Y Tu Mama Tambien broke Cuarón into mainstream
American cinema. However, this film isn’t
without controversy. It has been criticized for its sex scenes, which are
plentiful throughout the film. In fact, *spoiler
alert* within 20 minutes into the movie, you’ll encounter two sex scenes,
two nude scenes and one very racy scene. Still, to quote the late Roger Ebert, “The
movie is realistic about sex, which is to say, franker and healthier than the
smutty evasions forced on American movies by the R rating.” The sex scenes aren’t
meant to be pornographic but rather give realism about the sex life of two
normal male teenagers. It definitely isn’t a family friendly film; if you’re
uncomfortable with strong sex scenes, then this film isn’t for you. But if you
manage to get past the various sex scenes (and there are plenty), you’ll see a
raw, honest film about friendship and the changes it undergoes as one grows up.
Set in the background of a politically and economically unstable Mexico, you
can easily ignore these important scenes if you blink. What I really enjoyed
about the film was Cuarón’s choice in having a narrator in the film. An omniscient
narrator acts as a tour guide to reveal the past, the unspoken present and the future
of the characters that would never be revealed in the film itself but leaves
you to ponder the fates about the characters. Overall this film is the embodiment
of a drama but has room for a
couple of laughs to keep it from getting too sappy. If you’re interested, it’s
currently available on Netflix with English subtitles. It’s a film that will definitely
stay on your mind for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment