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Next on my Netflix queue was Y Tu Mama Tambien, which was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar (film year, 2002; awarding year, 2003). The other nominees in this category were:
Talk to Her (Winner)
Far From Heaven
Gangs of New York
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
This film represents the second of two Oscar-nominated Spanish-language foreign language films topping my Netflix queue, just in case you were keeping track.
Y Tu Mama Tambien crossed my radar not so much because of the Oscars but because it is one of those films that has garnered so much attention, whether it was because Alfonso Cuaron was the director, because the film is somewhat controversial in its subject matter, or because the film has actually been compared to American Pie (I think unfairly). I liked Cuaron's stylized and visual approach to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (even if I despised the adaptation), so I was also interested in experiencing this director in a more "real" film setting. Also, I am finding that I tend to enjoy Spanish-language foreign films, even though I never took the language. Thus, when Netflix recommended the film during my initial stream of consciousness queuing, I added it with interest in seeing what all of the talk was myself.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) tells the story of two horny teenaged boys, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), who are ready to waste a summer away on drugs, alcohol, and casual sex while their girlfriends are off spending the summer in Europe. Their plans go only slightly awry when they meet an older woman, Luisa (Maribel Verdu), the wife of Tenoch's academic but oafish cousin. The boys tempt her with a road trip to an imaginary beach cove called "Heaven's Mouth," which the boys claim is on the Oaxacan coast, and while Luisa initially refuses them, after learning that her husband has cheated on her yet again, she elects to take the boys up on their offer. What ensues is a road trip fraught with jealousy and facing hard truths: Luisa sleeps with both boys, though she suggests that the real lust they have is for each other. The boys' jealousy of each other, in turn, erupts over Luisa and various past indiscretions and develops into heated and violent arguments that threaten to destroy their friendship and to alienate the young woman who would teach them something about real life.
The first word that came to mind while watching Y Tu Mama Tambien was "intense." There is a level of intensity being explored here that is both engaging and hard to watch: the intensity of young testosterone, the intensity of realizing mortality, the intensity of love. This film's hallmark is the potency of this intensity, brought to a forefront by director Cuaron and made even more real by the performances of the three leads. Though young actors, there was a naturality about Bernal, Luna, and Verdu that drew the viewer, particularly me, in and suspended disbelief quite readily. Their story was real and interesting, and Cuaron amplified this intensity with a varied use of the camera, anywhere from a handheld, docu-style method of shooting to a standard point-and-shoot method focused on each lead's intimate expressions.
What I didn't particularly enjoy about this film was the fact that there was a narrator, who cuts into the action at odd points to not only provide a third-person omniescient investigation of each of the three primary characters' internal motivations but also to set their story against the backdrop of then-current political turmoil in Mexico. This narration, even though it added some logic to the progression of the storytelling, which I always welcome, proved to be more distracting than not because first, the sound dropped away dramatically, and there would be a pregnant, few seconds' pause before the melodic voice of the narrator offered his thoughts and observations. Second, the political backdrop was inconsequential and really had nothing to do with the story other than to place it in a period context. These three characters were not concerned with the outer workings of the world, and while that may have been the point, to contrast their naivete and selfishness with the larger shift in political landscapes, a few, minimal comments on the world at large would have sufficed to create that context. After all, if the three main characters did not seem to care about their environment, why should the viewer? It felt trite and pedantic to include such commentary, unless Cuaron aimed to have the picture be a social commentary piece. I think the picture was really an intimate, micro-level coming-of-age story, the intimacy of which might also have been emphasized by the larger world scope.
Also, there are some graphic sex scenes in this film, and while normally, I don't mind such scenes (after all, we're all only human), the sheer number of them felt a bit too much. On the one hand, the number belied the ultimate lesson that the boys seem to learn, which is not to treat sex merely as a tool or a quick ride on a willing pony but to treat it as an experience. On the other hand, the learning of this lesson and the boys' ultimate path to coming to grips with it felt ultimately unsatisfying, in that their reunion scene during the denoument of the film was given a short-shrift in narration.
Indeed, the most compelling story belonged to the character of Luisa, which I can't explain in more detail without spoiling the film entirely. It was her story, and her ending, that gave the film a sense of meaning to me; the boys, therefore, were mere accessories, even if the lessons being learned were theirs to absorb. It was Verdu's performance and Cuaron's deft handling of that performance that rendered the film as engaging as it was, and for that reason, I am inclined to rate the film a 7.5, between shaky/entertaining and minor flaws/very good. As to the test, it does not pass, merely because I cannot see myself engaging in repeat viewings of this film. It was powerful to be sure and more powerful and engaging than Far From Heaven, Gangs of New York, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (though I have not seen Talk to Her). Still, I think it's worth the watch, and if there are any other Cuaron films to explore, I'm ready to watch them. i think he is a talented director, and I think he handled the material in this film with a true sense of observation, skill, and connection to his characters.