Y Tu Mamá También
Composite Score: 85.4
Starring: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ana López Mercado, Diego Luna, Andrés Almeida, Marta Aura, Juan Carlos Remolina, and Silverio Palacios
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Writers: Carlos Cuarón and Alfonso Cuarón
Genres: Drama, Road Trip, Coming of Age
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $33.62 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Y Tu Mamá También is Alfonso Cuarón’s road trip coming-of-age film about two young men in Mexico and their trek to the beach with a woman in her late twenties. The film stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna as the two recent graduates – working class Julio and wealthy Tenoch – and Maribel Verdú as their traveling companion and cousin-in-law of Tenoch – Luisa. The film explores issues of politics and personal interest in the various regions of Mexico as the trio travels from Mexico City to the coast, while also dealing with the personal character development of its three protagonists – challenging the preconceived notions that Julio and Tenoch have formed about each other, about women, about sex, and about life in general and giving Luisa the opportunity to process the choices that led her away from her homeland in Spain to her life with a cheating husband in Mexico. Though controversial in content, the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars and is still considered one of Cuarón’s best films overall.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Y Tu Mamá También might be one of the horniest films ever made. It borders at moments on softcore pornography, meaning it’s certainly not a film for all audiences, contrasting with Cuarón’s work on Prisoner of Azkaban or A Little Princess. Fans of the filmmaker’s lighter works will find themselves in for a shock if they put this one on with no prior knowledge. As it stands, I understand why most of the discussions around sex and sexuality occur, tying Julio’s and Tenoch’s character development to their knowledge of sex and of women, but in more redeeming fashion than typical societal expectations. I don’t know how incredibly necessary the sex scenes are. They do serve the purpose of highlighting the immaturity and hypocrisy of the central characters, but their explicit nature might do more to take some audiences out of the film than they do to deepen their exploration of the characters. It’s one of those films that has become inextricably linked with its explicit content, and I think that connection detracts some from the deeper story of growing up, finding yourself, and growing apart.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
That deeper story and its very real exploration of adolescent friendship and growing up in the characters of Julio and Tenoch juxtaposed against the equally authentic quarter-life-crisis of Luisa are what make Y Tu Mamá También into a timeless coming-of-age film that people keep coming back to. From the opening parallels of Julio’s and Tenoch’s relationships with their respective girlfriends to the increasingly unsubtle contrast between their families’ lifestyles to the nature of their encounters with Luisa, the audience is given a clear development of the two characters from boys seeking to fit in with those around them to the young men that they become by the end of the film, focused more on university and “the future” than on their current social status. It’s a devastating look at the nature of growing up and the ease with which we can slip out of friendships that at one time seemed inseparable – I love it! Likewise, the subtle hints at Luisa’s condition and her need to live – whether that’s because she feels like she missed out on something before marriage or to get back at a cheating husband or to capture some sense of experience before a heavy tragedy, we don’t find out until the end – speak to that equally real sense of listlessness that so often comes at that point of post-early-adulthood right around age thirty. Hers is more a story of regret and uncertainty than of finding surety, but it still remains hopeful thanks to her eventual decision to stay at the coast and live awhile longer in the midst of the beauty that life has to offer.
In these two tales told side by side, Cuarón has crafted one of the most devastating looks at young adulthood and growing up and friendship that still manages to escape nihilism through the life of its most doomed character, earning it an undeniable place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Its more sexually explicit content might distract some audiences from the central point and themes of the film, but overall, the story and impact should remain pretty much the same. If you’d like to check this one out for yourself, you can stream it via AMC+ or rent it on most other streaming platforms.
