As you may or may not know, I am starting a new project, to create a list of my top 100 films. This is an incredibly gargantuan undertaking that each day I’m not sure how to accomplish but I love lists and this is the ultimate challenge for me. My goal is to complete a section of 10 films each week which can be found at this site: https://sites.google.com/site/tjpersonalcannon/
However in an effort to incorporate my many blogs, I’ve decided to pick one film per section (and each one of my top 10) to review here on the blog. it’s a good exercise for me to improve my writing and allow for a lengthy review of a movie I cherish. And the first such film I will review is Y Tu Mama Tambien.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, this movie tells the story of two boys on a road trip and the older woman who both helps and ultimately helps ruin their firendship. Julio and Tenoch (Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) come from different families, but are great firends. After a chance meeting with Luisa (Maribel Verdu), they set off on a trip to find a beach called la Boca del cielo. Luisa is incredibly free-spirited and engages the boys in topics ranging from sex, dugs, women, and life.
On the trip, she manages to seduce both boys and even engages in a threesome with them. Afterwards she leaves the boys to go explore and eventually die on her own (it’s revealed she had cancer.) The boy’s lives are irreparably changed after the experience and they never see each other until a fateful meeting at the end of the film. This helps underscore the political tumult of the time
The movie is such a breath of fresh air into the road trip genre, portraying dueling motivations. It’s also a very sexy movie, not at all ashamed to bask in the horniness of the teenagers and the seduction techniques of their older companion.
What I love most about the film is it’s energy. the chemistry between the actors shows and gives the film such life that its hard not to be caught up in the orgasmic nature of the movie. The highs and lows are portrayed by the actors with such verve and the storytelling of Cuaron never ceases to disappoint.
This Mexican film is one of the more accessible foreign language films on my list, but that doesn’t mean its easy. The film is incredibly thought provoking and encourages one to think about life more than just a series of trysts but as a journey to great places.