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Writer-director Alphonso Cuaron
(1995's "A Little Princess") manages to spin a gregarious coming-of-age
tale that injects some life into the wearisome on-the-road movie genre by
conjuring up the deliciously provocative Mexican journey pic Y Tu Mama
Tambien. This lusty and piercing study at the sexual proclivities of an
unlikely threesome as they hit the road to nowhere is indeed a refreshing
look at the amorous ambivalence of a soul-searching trio out to engage in
some self-discovery of the raucous kind. Cuaron cleverly promotes the
romantic notion of having his three horny and youthful hot-and-bothered
protagonists roam the surprisingly seedy and squalor sites of the Mexican
countryside that's rarely shown in cinema today. The appeal to this
filmmaker's passion that's brilliantly embedded in Y Tu Mama Tambien is
the innocuous deception being perpetrated; everything is an illusion and
wonderment from the quickly sexual trysts to the so-called enticing beach
that also happens to be an imaginary destination in the carefree mind of
oblivious, erratic souls. Y Tu Mama Tambien (the title translated into the
catchy schoolyard taunt "and your mother, too!") is a caustic and alluring
sexual adventure that's worth the rollicking ride.
While contemplating what they will do with their time after their
girlfriends depart for a lengthy European vacation, randy teens Tenoch
(Diego Luna, "Before Night Falls") and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal, "Amores
Perros) wrestle with their bout of sexual nervous energy. Like most young
guys their age, this pair has major sex on the brain. So realizing that
their gal pals are going away for an extended period of time, Tenoch and
Julio hastily engage in some creative foreplay with their babes just
before their take off. And even after that session of carnal calisthenics
with their sweethearts, the duo feel the need to self-gratify themselves
and compare notes on their private parts. Let's face it...Tenoch and Julio
got it bad in terms of an out-of-whack libido.
Perhaps the boys' fascination with their sexual drive is due to other
uneventful things going on in their lives. Tenoch happens to be the rich
son of a prosperous but morally bankrupt politician. Julio is less
fortunate as the son of a struggling single mother whose home is that of a
confining, less-than-flattering apartment. Together, the boys plan to
escape their selective miseries and wallow in the good times of aimlessly
traveling while sewing their wild oats. The pot sweetens when the two
teens convince the lovely Luisa (Maribel Verdu), the 28-year old wife of
Tenoch's distant cousin, to accompany them to a lavish Mexico City beach
where it's assured that it take all their breath away. The trouble with
this scenario is that the boys made up this fabrication about a beach in
order to ensure that the desirable Luisa is willing to join them--a sure
fire way to give them more reasons to fantasize and stimulate their
already out-of-control sexual urges.
What is so frank and mesmerizing about Y Tu Mama Tambien is Cuaron's
ability to parlay the free-spirited rawness and ribaldry of his leading
players and use them as penetrating poster children for the modern day
economical and overall emotional starvation of Mexico's chaotic times.
This film is essentially a travelogue into the congested hearts of
rambling individuals with no sense of balance or stability in their
unfulfilled lives. All they can do is control the little bit of unquenched
hedonism that exists in their aimless existence and even then that's an
unpredictable feat to completely manipulate. The gawky adolescence of
Tenoch and Julio and the unrepentant and bursting womanhood of the
desirable Luisa make for the resounding commentary on Cuaron's honest
portrait of a Mexico undergoing major political changes.
The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is breathtakingly vibrant as it
allows the audience to indulge in the players' road trip experiences
because much like them, we are on this trek with no sense of where we're
going or where we'll all end up at. The actors are simply riveting as
guides who only know how to act upon their pent-up feelings through a
morass of promiscuous uncertainty. Both Luna and Bernal play their roving
Latin lothario roles with an enthusiastic, cheeky conviction. There's this
believability factor that indicates their addictive personalities are
paramount to the psychological rut they're stuck in--somewhere between a
reckless raunchiness and a need for resolution and redemption. And Spanish
actress Maribel Verdu is marvelous as the older object-of-affection for
her younger male companions. Verdu's Luisa is compelling because she too
doesn't know what to make of her personal circumstances and hooking up
with the two virile teenage boys was an immediate and obvious escape from
her own brand of stagnation. Luisa is at odds with her own sexual
frustration it seems and by toying with the hormones of her willing road
admirers, it's plain to see the empowerment in her attempt to experiment
with her own arousal at the expense of her youthful, studmuffin suitors.
And so when opportunity knocks, these wayward folks answer the door with
indecisive verve.
Y Tu Mama Tambien literally and figuratively travels all over the map in
search of reclaiming its meaning and establishing a forethought of
carousing conviction. This is one road trip that I wouldn't mind venturing
on once again. The movie has an unassuming and quiet rage unlike any
sexual awakening teen film I have seen in quite a long time. Vastly
sardonic and intoxicating, Y Tu Mama Tambien is a bristle and
unconventionally welcoming eye opener that refreshingly defines what it
means to be an examination of sexual angst while catering to a
personalized and undefined rebellion.
As a filmmaker, Cuaron has impulsively provided us with an intuitive and
intrepid tour that's sure to satisfy our giddy need for viable,
titillating escapism. |
