#14: Y Tu Mama Tambien

Y Tu Mama Tambien ( And your mother too in English) is a movie about 2 adolescent teens taking off on a road trip along with a hot newly wed lady to a beach known as The Heaven's Mouth in Mexico.

At 16, the desire for sex occupies a center stage of a teenager's life and director Alfonso Cuaron (Great Expectations, Children of Men) presents this aspect of the teenagers' life as blatantly as possible. So there is a party that ends with one of the characters in a threesome, there's masturbation around a swimming pool and numerous odes to jerking off in a drunk stupor. What the director manages wonderfully well is the scant respect these teens have for things like relationships that become a focal point for individuals in their mid-20s. None of the teen characters take anything too seriously- whether it's about their careers or their girlfriends. All they care for is an outlet for their lust and the movie simply put is about these two guys wanting to have a good time.

The subtext to the movie though is the narrator explaining the background of the characters as they get introduced and that's when we come to realize that the country of Mexico forms an important character in the movie. There's a mention of how certain fishermen must re-locate from one of the beaches due to a new star hotel coming up, there's the declaration of a new regime taking over the country's affairs after 71 years and there's the backstory of the characters themselves - that are mentioned in a couple of sentences by the narrator. Some wonderfully innocent acting by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna keep you enticed to the action while Mexican actress Maribel Verdu albeit a bit frumpy looking will blow you away when she begins to show off her body. At approximately 100 minutes, the movie has enough moments of shock and joy to keep you interested.

There's a scene in the movie that's about the 11 rules that form the code of the 'Cholatras' as these teens call themselves and midway through the movie- the teens end up breaking these rules themselves. That, in essence explains the spirit of the movie. Y Tu Mama Tambien is unlike any other movie because without any real plot, the movie makes you a part of the journey of these characters and because the characters are a little different from you and me, you will never feel a minute's boredom during the movie.

Rating: 7/10