Y tu mamá también

Many dialogue driven movies often get a bad rap for being cinematically stale. After all, there are only so many ways that a filmmaker can make a conversation between characters visually interesting. But with 'Y tu mamá también,' director Alfonso Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki manage to organically blend script and form so seamlessly, that the characters' words and the camera's movements almost become one. A sexually charged coming-of-age road flick, the film features an unashamedly honest depiction of teenage desire, frustration, and confusion -- all caught under a faintly voyeuristic lens that refuses to cut away.

Tenoch and Julio (Diego Luna & Gael García Bernal) are two best friends living in Mexico City. When their girlfriends leave for a European vacation, the hormonal teenagers grow listless. That is, until they meet an older, beautiful Spanish woman named Luisa (Maribel Verdú). The trio eventually decide to embark on a road trip to the beach, and along the way they gradually bond while their relationship begins to shift, taking on new sexual and emotional turns. But as confessions are made and boundaries are shattered, friendships are put to the test, creating a lasting impact that will change the group forever.

Completely eschewing Hollywood's often romanticized and nostalgic view of adolescent passion, Cuaron immediately establishes an unapologetically frank and crude depiction of teenage lust. This fairly explicit portrayal of sex carries on throughout the entire runtime, and while the raunchy content might not be for everyone, these scenes rarely come across as gratuitous. Instead, they always serve the story and characters. Likewise, the script's dialogue is equally natural and blunt, creating an effortless air of authenticity marked by a juvenile sense of humor and surprisingly thoughtful insights.

To this end, much of the film is simply made up of conversations between Tenoch, Julio, and Luisa as they travel along their road trip and get to know each other more -- both personally and, uh, in the biblical sense. This leads to some joyfully amusing flirtations and dramatic revelations, tackling themes of desire, betrayal, friendship, identity, love, and growth. Throughout it all, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú forge a palpable sense of on-screen chemistry, fully selling their increasingly unconventional bond. Luna and Bernal make for a convincing pair of horny teens, and they both add an extra layer of honest vulnerability and youthful confusion to their roles. Meanwhile, Verdú is absolutely enthralling here, perfectly breathing life into the boys' alluring object of desire. Of course, the character is much more than a mere source of sexual longing, and the actress creates a multifaceted woman struggling with hidden pain. Together, the trio strip themselves bare (literally and figuratively), bringing the script's informal dialogue and complex erotic material to the screen with an effortless level of realism.

Delicately aiding the film's story and performances, is Cuaron's naturalistic but still artistically deliberate visual style. Marked by wide masters, long takes, and reframing camera angles, the film's aesthetic has a freewheeling, almost objective quality, offering an intimate and unobtrusive peek into the characters' private moments. Like a nearly invisible guiding hand, the camera organically fixates on the characters and action, letting events naturally unfold by extending shots as long as they can go while only cutting when functionally necessary. For instance, one scene starts off with Luisa in her apartment as she leaves to meet the boys downstairs -- but instead of cutting to a new shot once she greets them, the camera simply reframes to the window when she gets to the car, allowing us to see all that we need to see in one unbroken sequence. The film is full of instances like this, leading to a technically impressive display of sustained handheld camera work that never draws attention away from the narrative. On the contrary, it only enhances it, bringing rich cinematic form to the runtime's numerous conversations and sexual escapades.

And while these stylistic choices are usually quite subtle, the movie is home to a few more overt flourishes as well, drawing heavy inspiration from the French New Wave (particularly the works of Godard and Truffaut). Perhaps most striking of all, is a sequence that involves Luisa selecting a song on a juke box. As she turns around and begins to seductively make her way back to the boys, she suddenly looks straight into the lens. For a moment she dances directly with the camera. For a moment… she dances with us. It's an arresting visual choice that only works to increase the level of intimacy between the characters and audience, and thankfully Cuaron elects to employ techniques like this in moderation. Also of special note, is the movie's use of voice over narration. Periodically the sound mix will abruptly cut out and an anonymous narrator will fill us in on the protagonists' backgrounds, private thoughts, and future lives, providing an extra window into the plot and characters.

Coming-of-age stories don't always end with a welcomed epiphany, and people aren't always ready to embrace the changes and emotions they've endured. In fact, sometimes they hide from them and they run from them, and they try to ignore them. But the ripples of their experiences linger regardless, informing the rest of their lives. With 'Y tu mamá también,' Alfonso Cuaron taps into these concepts, weaving a refreshingly honest tale about developing identities fueled by youthful sexuality, companionship, and love -- one that remains raw, humorous, sensual, crude, and above all, utterly human.  

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

Criterion brings 'Y tu mamá también' to Blu-ray in a dual format release that includes a BD-50 disc and two DVDs (which contain all of the same content as the Blu-ray). The discs come housed in a foldout case packaged inside a cardboard slipcase with spine number 723. A thick booklet with an essay by critic Charles Taylor and comprehensive character biographies written by Alfonso Cuaron and Carlos Cuaron is also included.