Y Tu Mama Tambien Review
by Tim Wick
In one of the most bizarre jokes that evolution has played upon the sexes,
science tells us that men reach their sexual peak when they are in their
late teens while women reach their peak when they are in their mid 30's.
Think about what this means.
It means that when men are most interested in satisfying women's desires in
bed, they are immature adolescents who have no idea how to give their
partner a decent sexual experience. By the time they have this knowledge,
their sex drive theoretically can't keep up. I blame professional sports.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (which translates as And your Mother Also) is a film
about two such adolescents. We are used to teen comedies in which the young
men are obsessed by sex but never have we seen a film that so completely
understands what is going on in the minds of teenage boys. Sex is not a
cooperative act when boys are eighteen. Sex is viewed by young men as a
right of passage into adulthood when in fact it is a way in which young men
try to remain boys. I can look at this movie with that perception and
remember that I, like most other males of the species, was guilty of the
same behavior when I was their age.
The film is not about sex but, much like last year's brilliant Ghost
World, it is about that point in all young people's lives where they must
make the decision to grow up. In this case, sexual maturation is the
equivalent of emotional and intellectual maturation.
Tenoch and Julio, the teenagers with whom the film is concerned, are
children on the verge of adulthood. They have been friends for a long time
but can only relate to each other as children do. They have experienced sex
but they haven't actually discovered sex. They spend their afternoons
tossing off at the pool while the world goes on around them without their
knowledge. When their girlfriends leave for a summer in Europe, they are
all aware that the relationships are ending even as they pretend that they
are not. Their ability to communicate with the rest of the world is as
awkward and stunted as their ability to communicate with each other.
Then they meet Louisa, the stunning wife of Tenoch's cousin. She is older
than they are and she has just discovered her husband is cheating on her.
On a whim (or so it seems) she takes them up on an invitation to travel to a
mythical beach called Heaven's Mouth.
Her reasons for making the journey are somewhat mysterious. Tenoch and
Julio don't seem to be the kind of company any mature woman would want to
keep - even one looking to get revenge on a womanizing husband. It seems
clear that she is using them just as they hope to use her but along the way
she is guiding them on the road to maturity.
If we want to believe that the film is about little more than a sexual
journey, director Alfonso Cuaron wants us to recognize that it is about so
much more. Occasionally, the soundtrack will cut out entirely and the
narrator will break in with a story about the place they are driving past,
the innermost thoughts of the characters or the future of someone we have
just met. The first time this happened, I thought for a moment there was
something wrong with the projector. These observations are sometimes funny,
sometimes poignant and sometimes frightening but they serve a very
significant purpose because they are there to show the world outside the
minds of these randy teenagers. The world they do not see is a world they
will eventually have to join.
In another wonderful piece of writing, we see Tenoch and Julio often engage
in an underwater race to see who can hold his breath the longest. The race
becomes a metaphor for their lives where they are free from responsibility
until they finally are forced to put their heads above water.
Louisa knows more about these boys than they can ever understand about
themselves. Her stories about her own sexual experiences are really told to
give the boys perspective. She talks about love, death, work and marriage
in ways these two young men have never thought about them. They joke and
laugh and pretend that her stories of a seventeen year old boyfriend killed
in a car accident don't affect them. In fact, they spend the entire movie
pretending that a great many things don't affect them.
The movie handles this delicate awakening with a sly sense of humor and a
sure understanding that these characters are flawed but no more than anyone
else. Yes, Tenoch and Julio are obsessed with sex and seemingly incapable
of fidelity. Yes, they are engaged in a seemingly constant battle for
dominance over each other while failing to notice that Louisa holds dominion
over both of them. Yes, they pull away the moment either one of them
experiences a moment of true intimacy. They do all these things because
they are young and not because they are awful people. At moments we see a
glimmer that these children may one day become men.
The film is frank about sexuality and as a result it has been released
unrated. Roger Ebert has observed that a film dealing frankly with teenage
sexuality is crippled by a rating system that would virtually guarantee a
teenage can't see the film. At the same time, the MPAA has no problem with
films with buckets of blood and death like Blade II. If our children are
mature enough to deal with Blade II, Ebert argues, aren't the mature
enough to watch a film that helps them understand their own sexuality? If
my son was sixteen, I'm not sure if I'd want him to see this film alone. I
do think that I'd want to take him to see it. I find it tragic that a
series of checkboxes has taken the place of common sense. A film depicting
graphic sex does not automatically become pornography. Much as the film
itself observes, if we treat our children like children we can never expect
them to become halfway decent adults.
For the most part, the films I appreciate most are the ones that I can't
stop thinking about. That is why I hold films like A.I, and Mulholland
Drive in such high regard. Y Tu Mama Tambien is another film that I have
found myself dwelling on since I left the theatre. Without question it is
the first true gem of the 2002 movie year.
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