Y Tu Mama Tambien

Alfonso Cuaron has most recently directed one of the great films of 2006 Children of Men. His skill in that movie was beyond a doubt as I can still vividly remember many of the truly great scenes in that movie. I had previously seen two other films by him. Neither exactly groundbreaking but I did enjoy both Great Expectations and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In fact the latter is in my opinion the best in what has become quite a tedious series of films.

So with great interest I sat down to watch Y Tu Mama Tambien. The story centers around the friendship of Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal). As their girlfriends leave for a summer in Italy, the two are left with their boredom and their own devices in their summer before college. There boredom amounts to swimming, smoking pot, general bs-ing and equally mindless pursuits. By chance at a wedding they meet Luisa, who is married to Tenoch's cousin. They in their pathetic attempts to pick her up tell a story of a wonderful beach they are planning to go to. Luisa eventually takes them up on their offer and the three being a road trip to a beach that doesn't quite exist.

The story is quite engaging. Tenoch and Julio's friendship seems genuine and they feel like real characters. Luisa as the interloper works surprisingly well as a catalyst for the two friends. There are countless surprises revealed on the trip that tear apart and then reforge the friendship the two have. It is a interesting take on what is essentially a road trip movie. There is also a rather lot of at times gratuitous sex in the film but not so much that one is taken out of the film.

There is also a frequent interruption through voice over to fill in back story about various points of life either of characters or locations. It gets quite annoying and I found myself quite tired of it really quickly. Still the actors and their characters keep one engaged through most of the film.