| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Daniel Giménez Cacho | ... |
Narrator
(voice)
|
|
|
|
Ana López Mercado | ... | |
| Diego Luna | ... | ||
| Gael García Bernal | ... | ||
|
|
Nathan Grinberg | ... |
Manuel Huerta
|
| Verónica Langer | ... |
María Eugenia Calles de Huerta
|
|
| María Aura | ... | ||
|
|
Giselle Audirac | ... |
Nicole Bazaine
|
|
|
Arturo Ríos | ... |
Esteban Morelos
|
| Andrés Almeida | ... | ||
| Diana Bracho | ... | ||
| Emilio Echevarría | ... |
Miguel Iturbide
|
|
|
|
Marta Aura | ... |
Enriqueta 'Queta' Allende
|
| Maribel Verdú | ... | ||
|
|
Juan Carlos Remolina | ... | |
In Mexico City, late teen friends Tenoch Iturbide and Julio Zapata are feeling restless as their respective girlfriends are traveling together through Europe before they all begin the next phase of their lives at college. At a lavish family wedding, Tenoch and Julio meet Luisa Cortés, the twenty-something wife of Tenoch's cousin Jano, the two who have just moved to Mexico from Spain. Tenoch and Julio try to impress the beautiful Luisa by telling her that they will be taking a trip to the most beautiful secluded beach in Mexico called la Boca del Cielo (translated to Heaven's Mouth), the trip and the beach which in reality don't exist. When Luisa learns of Jano's latest marital indiscretion straight from the horse's mouth, she takes Tenoch and Julio's offer to go along on this road trip, meaning that Tenoch and Julio have to pull together quickly a road trip to a non-existent beach. They decide to head toward one suggested by their friend Saba, who seems a little confused himself of ... Written by Huggo
I read an article about this movie and some have referred to this movie as a Mexican version of "American Pie." I believe the joke was that it should be called "Latin-American Pie." Now, I enjoyed the "AP" movies, and don't believe them to be crappy movies, but they possess no depth and substance. "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is much more sexually explicit than those two films put together, but it's in no way exploitative. It's a slice-of-life story involving teens, and who's gonna deny that 80 percent of a teenager's life revolves around sex?
The two main characters, though utterly repulsive in nature, aren't totally unsympathetic, like the characters in Larry Clark's "Kids." Through the narration, we get a sense of the characters' backgrounds and why they are the way they are. We aren't simply thrown into this torrent of teenage decadence without a net.
I'm sure very few people will regard this as a comedy, but it's filled with hilarious moments, mostly involving the explicit sexual conversations. Though it leaves you with a sad feeling at the end, it doesn't keep you depressed the whole way through.
As well as being a character-driven youth drama/road movie, it's basically a film about life, most specifically fate and how it works in mysterious ways and how many people live parallel lives and simply aren't aware. I'm not going to pretend as if I wasn't stimulated by the sex scenes, or seeing the Spanish actress who plays Luisa naked, but I didn't enjoy it just because of its sexual content. Too many movies nowadays forbid you the pleasure of going on a character's journey. Too many movies are all about plot, and more specially about plot devices. Screenwriters spend so much time developing plot that character development is put on the backburner. When you get to know the characters this deeply, you're able to connect with them, feel their pleasure and feel their pain. "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is one of those rare, character-driven gems that is definitely worth a trip to the video store!
My score: 9 (out of 10)