And Your Mom Too (Y tu mamá también) is a 2001 film directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Maribel Verdú (Pan’s Labyrinth), Gael García (Desierto) and Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). It’s a road movie and at the same time it’s a story of personal growth, the end of adolescence. Cuarón couldn’t have shot this movie in Hollywood (where he would work a lot later) because of how he openly deals with the subject of sex and how he openly shows naked bodies, especially male ones (indeed this is a very stupid taboo).
Briefly, the plot is the following: in Mexico, the young Julio (Gael García) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) are two inseparable friends.They know everything about each other, they’re always together, and they even have a code of honor with the rules of their friendship. While their girlfriends are in Italy to study, at a wedding they meet the partner of a cousin of Tenoch, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), about ten years older than them. Together, they begin a journey of a few days to reach a wonderful beach. It goes without saying that the journey radically changes the lives of all three of them.
Cuarón shoots everything with his handheld camera, making the car ride very dynamic. He also shows interesting and little-known places in Mexico, without missing any opportunity to comment on the political situation in the country. Throughout the trip, we the audience listen to the same music that the protagonists listen to, music that’s often so loud that it’s difficult to understand some of the dialogues. Not that the dialogues themselves are particularly interesting. In fact, I think none of them (except maybe one of the last ones where the movie title is mentioned) have any real meaning.
And while we’re at it… This movie has really bored me. I couldn’t bear the invasive narrator’s voice that at the end of EVERY scene explains stuff that sometimes has to do with the protagonists, and sometimes not. I don’t like narrative voices in general, but in my opinion here Cuarón really exaggerated in this movie. The silly dialogues between the three protagonists seem improvised, they’re repetitive, and although they probably reflect well the possible dialogues between two Mexican teenagers, they quickly tired me. And I have the feeling that even Cuarón was bored, so much so that he introduced the narrative voice dominating the voices of the actors in order to explain to the viewer what’s going on or to deal with other things that have nothing to do with the characters.
After an hour, I couldn’t take it anymore, and the movie is almost two hours long! It was like torture for me. I understand that it’s all about personal growth blah blah blah, the end of adolescence blah blah blah, passionate love that burns quickly blah blah blah, the people who change your life blah blah blah, the difference between a great friendship and love blah blah blah… I understand all that, but I prefer these messages to reach me in a different way. However, I’m aware that I’m among the few who didn’t like this movie (at least judging from the stars on the Internet Movie DataBase, MetaCritic and Rotten Tomatoes… and after this movie Cuarón got himself a great production like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004, which for me is the best film of the saga about the wizard created by J.K. Rowling), so the fact that I didn’t enjoy And Your Mom Too is just another proof that I know nothing of cinema… Ciao!
External links:
- The movie trailer on Youtube
- The movie page on Internet Movie DataBase
- Movie review on The film experience
- Movie review on Jezza’s blog
- Movie review on Rose coloured Raybans
- Movie review on Ten years ago
- Movie review on The film pie
- Movie review on Criterion cast
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