(Spanish with Eng. subtitles)

It’s hard to believe that "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is the work of the same director who made "A Little Princess" from 1995 and the 1998 update of "Great Expectations." Those movies have all the artifice of the Hollywood system that created them and none of the earthiness that characterizes this movie. It’s brutally funny, surprisingly poignant and ultimately thought provoking. "Y Tu Mama Tambien" is the work of a filmmaker at his artistic peak.

Alfonso Cuaron’s story begins with a bedroom romp full of graphic sex, sexually explicit language and male bravado and turns into a road movie. The sex becomes less graphic, the explicit language more clinical, and the male bravado is toned down. All the while, it imperceptibly morphs into a tone poem about the sea of change in modern day Mexico.

After fulfilling each other’s sexual needs, Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia) bid their girlfriends farewell for the summer. Left to their own devices, the boys talk about their friendship, escapades, sex and drugs. Then Tenoch meets his new cousin-in-law, Luisa (Maribel Verdu), at a wedding laden with dignitaries and people in high places. He brags about his sex appeal, bad mouths his relatives, and denigrates their friends - all in the same breath. Luisa finds his immaturity entertaining. Tenoch makes up a story about planning a trip with Julio to a place called Heaven’s Mouth. It’s an inside joke about oral sex but she doesn’t seem to catch on. A day or two later, Luisa’s husband calls and confesses an infidelity. She decides to join Tenoch and Julio on their journey. With a borrowed car and an inadequate road map the trio go off in search of a place that exists solely in Tenoch’s vivid imagination. When they’re not searching for a coastal route, they wonder - as does the audience - when the boys are going to put the make on the ‘experienced’ Luisa.

Underneath this surface narrative, director Alfonso Cuaron takes us away from the urban sophistication of Mexico City through the search and seizure checkpoints in the countryside into the heartland of Mexico and beyond to a world of pristine beauty where a man’s way of life is still tied to the earth and nature’s bounty. A narrator occasionally fills in the details of people’s lives, weaving their stories, past, present, and future into the fabric of history. He reveals their innermost thoughts and darkest secrets. A few of Tenoch’s and Julio’s secrets will come bubbling to the surface and the true nature of their friendship - patrician and plebe, the have and the have not - will be exposed. Even their names, carefully chosen by Alfonso Cuaron and his fellow writer and brother Carlos, hint at the idea of a class distinction between the two boys. Tenoch is a respected ancient Aztec name that denotes lineage. Julio is a common name. His last name is Zapata, or shoe - like the famous revolutionary who led a peasants’ revolt for land reform in the early 1900s. Luisa is the intermediary, a foreigner from Spain who sees them for who and what they are. She also sees a Mexico brimming with life - a nation struggling to find a balance between youthful indiscretion and maturity - not unlike her companions. Like them and Mexico itself, Luisa has her secrets. Secrets that make her cry at the drop of a hat. Secrets that make her want to experience the fullness of life in a way she never could with her husband. The audience is forced to ask questions about her behavior only to be surprised at the rushing tide of answers that will pull them, unwittingly, into its undertow. The hopes of Mexico, like the youthful aspirations of Tenoch and Julio, will be washed away by self indulgence, shady politicians, and corporate greed. The film speaks about events that shape people’s lives and hints at things to come. Things that will make the lives of Tenoch and Julio seem inconsequential and turn Luisa’s new life into a coda for their youth.

Copyright 2002

"Easy Rider" (1969) - The indie classic about two bikers going into the heartland of the American West after making a drug score in L.A. They observe the simple pleasures of family life, and people living off the land while passing their nights in a drug induced haze. Jack Nicholson gives a star making performance as a down and out lawyer they pick up on the way. With Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper who also wrote and directed.

"Going Places" (1974) (Fr. with English subtitles) - Dir. Bertrand Blier. Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere are two nihilistic petty crooks who terrorize their way across the country, prey on some women and bed others. Jeanne Moreau appears as a wounded victim of society who teaches them a thing or two. With Miou-Miou and a very young Isabelle Huppert.

"Jules et Jim" (1961) (Fr. with English subtitles) - Dir. Francois Truffaut. More philosophical in approach, this one examines the changing relationship between two men and the woman they both love and sometimes share over the course of their lives. With Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, and Henri Serre. The style of the movie was considered a cinematic breakthrough on its first release. It’s hypnotic.

"A Little Princess" (1995) - Lovers of the Shirley Temple version from 1939 won’t be disappointed with this adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s story about a girl left at an orphanage while her father goes off to fight in WWI. Eleanor Bron is the very hissable headmistress who bumps heads with the very resourceful Liesel Matthews. Liam Cunningham is the father. Kids love it and if you have the heart of a child, you will too!