Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

Director:

Alfonso Cuarón

Writers:

Carlos Cuarón, Alfonso Cuarón

Stars:

Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 38 wins & 46 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Giménez Cacho	...	Narrator (voice)
Ana López Mercado	...	Ana Morelos
Diego Luna	...	Tenoch Iturbide
Gael García Bernal	...	Julio Zapata
Nathan Grinberg	...	Manuel Huerta
Verónica Langer	...	María Eugenia Calles de Huerta
María Aura	...	Cecilia Huerta
Giselle Audirac	...	Nicole Bazaine
Arturo Ríos	...	Esteban Morelos
Andrés Almeida	...	Diego 'Saba' Madero
Diana Bracho	...	Silvia Allende de Iturbide
Emilio Echevarría	...	Miguel Iturbide
Marta Aura	...	Enriqueta 'Queta' Allende
Maribel Verdú	...	Luisa Cortés
Juan Carlos Remolina	...	Alejandro 'Jano' Montes de Oca

Storyline

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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

threesome | on the road | cleaning a swimming pool | female pedophile | female sex abuser | 

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Taglines:

La vida tiene sus maneras de enseñarnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de confundirnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de cambiarnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de asombrarnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de herirnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de curarnos. La vida tiene sus maneras de inspirarnos.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content involving teens, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

26 April 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Y Tu Mamá También

Filming Locations:

Tepelmeme Villa de Morelos, Oaxaca, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$408,091, 17 March 2002, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$13,622,333, 28 July 2002

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anhelo Producciones, Besame Mucho Pictures, Producciones Anhelo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ranked number 76 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.

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Goofs

The image of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara hanging from the rear-view mirror keeps appearing and disappearing during the first part of the road trip, right before it is substituted by the toy rabbit Luisa buys at the township.

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Quotes

Luisa: Life is like the surf, so give yourself away like the sea.

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Alternate Versions

US R rated version runs ca. 5 minutes shorter than the uncut version. Both versions are available on DVD.

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Connections

References Run Lola Run (1998)

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Soundtracks

Showroom Dummies
Written by Ralf Hütter
Performed by Señor Coconut and Su Conjunto
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Courtesy of Emperor Norton Records

User Reviews

Alfonso Cuaron and Company Tease and Dare

The two teenage males in this sharply etched film, "Y tu mama tambien," are obsessed with sex and view its pleasures as something akin to joyfully skating across a frozen lake. As the story develops the ice gets thinner and thinner, its incapacity to carry the weight of their fantasies advances faster than their growing inevitable end stop - maturity.

The Mexico of the teenagers and their generally stoned friends is one of affluence and political connectedness. One father belongs to a country club that features one of the biggest private swimming pools I've seen - no film set here (the pool is the scene of a very, ah, unusual depiction of teen horniness). Neither of the lads cares much about the actual political and social issues occurring during their adventures and which are seamlessly integrated into their story. Their futures are a blank to them but a blank untroubled by the need to be concerned or ambitious.

And then arrives the femme fatale, a beautiful, smart but very raunchy just-left-husband gal with whom they take off in a beaten-up old station wagon to find, ostensibly, a secret beach. Of course what the guys have in mind is seduction.

Without a polemical discourse the viewer is carried into the isolation and poverty of much of Mexico as asphalt yields to hard dirt roads leading to barely navigable sand traps. The people they encounter along the way are realized subtly but effectively.

These teens aren't really so likable but they do show occasional promise of growing up, a redeeming feature. This is less a road film than it is a comedy of (very bad) manners. The director and three leading characters have taken raunch to a new and interesting cinematic plane.

While these kids may be a parent's nightmare, they become more complex, and inevitably more insightful, as the film develops. By the end they are very, very different people and in danger of becoming sort of plain vanilla post-teens (whatever the Mexican equivalent of the Japanese "salaryman" is, they may well be launched along that path).

This film is rated "R" but many will wonder how it avoided an "X." Be forewarned. But some of the sex scenes are hilarious - especially if the viewer has ever been a teenager. :)

Cuaron uses voiceovers not so much to explain the story but to quietly show that all lives have "sidebar" events beyond the tale being told, events that can be described in one or two sentences and which illuminate the fullness of a character's journey.

The scenery is gorgeous.

Definitely a different and engrossing story.