People have referred to “Y Tu Mama Tambien” as the Spanish-version of “American Pie.” Though I love the “American Pie” series, I don’t think that’s a very good description. Although both movies have its funny scenes, this movie is a lot more serious. While “American Pie” is a coming-of-age comedy about friendship that’ll have you cracking up in your seat, “Y Tu Mama Tambien” has a lot more to do with the huge change that growing up brings forth in our lives, and the growing pains that accompany it. It IS funny. I just wouldn’t really call it a comedy when it has a lot more drama in it. In fact, I think it’s closer to being the Spanish-version of “Chasing Amy”(another great movie) than it is to being another “American Pie.” Not because of the story, but because of the way the plot takes a bunch of ordinarily-silly characters, and puts them in serious situations. How the characters react and change is fascinating.
I really loved this movie. I laughed a lot more than I expected to, and the dramatic stuff really hit me on a high level. It’s a film about change, maturity, and how after high school, things will never be the same again. Oh yeah, there’s also a lot of sex and nudity involved(the opening scene might make you wanna run out of the theater, that's if you’re one of those easily-offended prunes). But trust me, it’s necessary for the story to work. This could’ve turned out to be another highly-offensive gross-out comedy, and although there’s a lot of offensive stuff flying around(for example, one of the characters refers to the french as a bunch of “fags”), there’s a lot more to it then sex and prejudice. I mean, That’s just the way the characters are. They’re a bunch of confused teens who think they know everything about the world and consider sex and smoking weed as a daily past-time. They’re not totally brain-dead like the characters in “Bully”(a very controversial yet powerful film) though. One of them wants to be a writer, and they all strive to have a good future. They just let drugs and stuff get in the way of that.
All of this is done so realistic that I wonder if they could’ve gotten away with the R-rating here in the United States. Probably not, since the MPAA(Motion Picture Association of America) is so mind-numbingly stupid that they would give such a beautiful and thought-provoking film like “Waking Life” an R-rating, yet they let a film like “Coyote Ugly,” which is basically a bunch of women consuming alcohol for fun, get away with the PG-13 rating.
I wonder if the MPAA even watches the movies they give ratings to. Probably not. They probably just skim through it taking count of all the foul language. Oh well, can‘t fix everything......on with the review.
Even though the movie’s dialogue is in Spanish, which is a language I’m pretty fluent in, it was so rich in strange Mexican dialect that I still had to read the subtitles. The dialogue is pretty vulgar(actually, that's an understatement) at times but it’s also very brilliant. They talk the way kids talk...well in America, I mean. I dunno about Mexico considering I’ve never been there, but it IS a Mexican film, so I guess both countries are rather alike when it comes to our corrupted youth.
If you didn’t know, the story of this movie basically involves two teenage boys just getting out of high school, both with their entire lives ahead of them, taking a road trip with an older woman(around age 28) to a beach called “Heaven’s Mouth.” As usual, I won’t reveal any of the secrets pertaining to anything outside the basic story, but let’s just say a lot happens on this road trip.
Another reason the film works so well are the outstanding performances by the three leads. Maribel Verdu plays Luisa, and she does an excellent job portraying the “mature” character in the story. She was also in a movie I never heard of called “Belle Epoque” but focusing on this film, she’s great at what she has to do, which is basically acting out every emotion in the book. She did a fantastic job. Gael Garcia Bernal(he was in “Amores Perros”) plays “Julio,” and he does a great job here, being able to portray extreme anger and comedy at the same time. The other lead is Diego Luna(also starred in “Before Night Falls”) who plays “Tenoch,” and just like the other two, he does an amazing job.
Here’s an interesting tidbit of information. Both Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal(friends in the movie) are friends in real life. They met while playing in the Mexican soap-opera, “El Abuelo Y Yo,” when they were 12. They’ve been friends ever since.
The directing in this film was great, and the man responsible for that is Spanish-film director, Alfonso Cuaron. Although he is Spanish, this is only his second Spanish film to date. His feature film debut was his first Spanish-film called “Solo Con Tu Pareja”(a very popular foreign film that stars Daniel Jimenez Cacho, the narrator for this film), and he then went on to direct two American films, one being “A Little Princess,” and the other being an update on the Charles Dickens classic, “Great Expectations.” Like I said before, the directing is very good. He kinda reminds me of Kevin Smith(my favorite director who directed such comedy classics as “Chasing Amy” and “Clerks”) who can put two actors in front of the screen, make them talk, and it’s surprisingly entertaining. There’s a lot of entertaining talk in this movie, so that’s why I saw some similarities. The script was taken care of by Alfonso Cuaron as well as his brother, Carlos Cuaron, who wrote the screenplay for Alfonso’s first film, “Solo Con Tu Pareja.” As I said, the dialogue is very good, so both of them did an awesome job.
After it’s first week playing in Mexico, “Y Tu Mama Tambien” broke Mexican Box-Office records. It’s the biggest opening ever for a Mexican film, grossing $2.2 million in its first week, and it’s well deserved. I just thought you all might like to know that.
“Julio,” Tenoch,” and “Luisa” will never forget the trip they took on those fateful five-days...or perhaps they will, which is what the movie is trying to tell us in the first place. Yes, it shares similarities with “American Pie,” but on a much darker level than some critics are implying. For these teens, their lives will never be the same again....which is something they generally didn’t see coming. “American Pie” fills us with that nice, warm sense of security, which I believe goes: “Times change, people change, but friendship is forever.” Well, with “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” it’s more like: “Times change, people change, and friendship is only temporary.” It’s sad, but often true, and the movie tells us this beautifully.
On a scale of 1-10: 9
NOTE:It seems that the infamous hotline known as Moviefone has misleaded me once again....."Y Tu Mama Tambien" is in fact NOT R-rated, it's Unrated. I just wanted to clear that up.
