“Life is like the surf, so give yourself away like the sea.”
Before directing Children of Men (2005) and today’s most talkabout movie, Gravity (2013), Alfonso Cuarón written and directed Y Tu Mamá También (2001). It opens with a pretty brave scene, where one of the character lead, Tenoch (Diego Luna) is having intercourse with his girlfriend, Ana, in a bedroom. While they’re on each other, their conversation shows that Ana is going away to Italy this summer vacation and Tenoch wants her to keep promise not to have sex with another guy. Tenoch’s best friend, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) also have to be apart with his girlfriend, Cecilia, for a while since she’s going with Ana to Italy. Both couple seems to be much in love and innocent, but actually Tenoch and Julio seem to have no problem being apart from their girlfriends throughout summer. In fact, it’s their time to have some good and wild time. It shows in their early summer holiday that Tenoch and Julio are enjoying doing anything illegal and perhaps too wild in their age, like having sex, taking illegal drugs and partying. But somehow, their respected and wealthy parents never prohibit or suspicious to anything they do.
In one of their relatives wedding, Tenoch and Julio met Luisa (Maribel Verdú), an attractive girl in her early 20s married to Tenoch’s annoying cousin, Jano (Juan Carlos Remolina). Luisa mentioned that she wants to go to see a beach with Jano. To impress Luisa, Tenoch and Julio told her that they believe they know a called Boca del Cielo (“Heaven’s Mouth”), which they made up. Luisa refuses their invitation, but when she knows that Jano is cheating with her, she change her mind and off the three of them go on a road trip.
The three getting along pretty well on the road that they are comfortable enough talking about their sex experiences. Luisa is still processing her separation with Jano and therefore cries a lot in her room. But it’s only a matter of time that the boys know Jano is cheating with another woman. They passed many roads where it shows the economy-politic background of Mexico city in 1999. Feeling lonely and carried away, one day Luisa invites Tenoch to have sexual intercourse, which Tenoch excitedly agree to do. Knowing what they do, Julio confesses that he once had sex with Tenoch’s girlfriend, which infuriates Tenoch. They fight a lot on the road, especially after Luisa asks Julio to do her too. All the fighting makes the road trip messy, that it makes Luisa decide not to take the road trip with them anymore.
Y Tu Mamá También have one too much intercourse scene that I was hoping for, but it’s all strongly part of the story. But I can see how it would be a problem for some people, because it looks like a teenage movie. Like American Pie, the teen boys have urges, although they say that they are comitted to their girlfriends. And like much grinned high school boys, I never really like them. But like any man, the phase of becoming adult and likewise with the road trip, it’s the peak of their clueless teenhood. It could be strange though how a wife in her early 20s having a road trip with two teen boys, the awkwardness was there but maybe it’s because the age difference only about 5-6 years or so that it doesn’t really occur.
Luisa seems calmer and more mature, like one of the boys says she looks like a thinker. Luisa already experienced lots of pain for a woman in her age, taking care of her sick aunt for 5 years, losing her first love and then be cheated with her husband. Even so, one could wonder why a wise woman would go on a trip with two teen boys and also invite them to do an intercourse. A question you should seek out until the end of the story. It’s not a puny reason, for sure. While Tenoch and Julio seem too much having fun with each other and everything works their way, their friendship are tested during the road trip.
Though Y Tu Mamá También looks an effortless road trip movie, it’s actually pretty smart. The voice overs or narrator often tell stories to the current location they are currently passing, the background of the people that the boys and Luisa knows and also the Mexico City political and economical background at that time (which I didn’t follow, so I can’t say much about it). It’s small, but I cannot not ignore, how the atmosphere or music drastically have low volume when the narrator about to narrate, it should be smoother to the ears.
Seeing Gael Garcia Bernal before (Motorcycle Diaries), I have no doubt on his performance. But he and Diego Luna was quite total as two foolish teenage best friends. Their ability was shown until the very last scene where they already grow up and matured. I think it’s perfect to cast Maribel Verdú as Luisa, who is smart, kind, deep but have sexual charisma.
Though it involved two teen boys, it caused controversy for showing depiction of sexuality. But if you’re adult enough, the movie definitely have something to tell. It’s a pretty prone topic to begin, but somehow it works. Not just from the directing and story, but the actors have wonderful chemistry. Y Tu Mamá También is a decent coming-of-age road trip movie.
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