Friday, January 13, 2012

A Lesson In (B)romance.

Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (2001)
It's a story you've heard before: two teenage boys with raging hormones persistently try their luck with a woman far out of their league. It's been done before, it will be done again. What will never be repeated, however, is the brilliant subtlety that this movie really rides on. I could count on my fingers the amount of times narration in movies has been done right, and this one would certainly hit high up on that list. The real meat of this movie is in the depth of its characters and the richness Mexico, which may as well be a character in itself.  Diego Luna gives a solid performance as the rich and spoiled Tenoch, while Gael Garcia Bernal matches his performance with his less fortunate best friend, Julio. The dynamic between these boys is so rich and believable that it came as no surprise to me when I found out that the two actors actually had been childhood best friends. But what is really brilliant here is how the politics of Mexico play out between these two boys. While they initially never address the differences in their social class, we do know (via the narrator) that Julio "lighted matched to mask the smell when he used the bathroom as Tenoch's house", while Tenoch "used his foot to lift up the toilet seat at Julio's house." It's a small detail which, in any other movie, might seem like too much information, but here clearly adds a tense layer of economic discrepancy between the two best friends. 

The object of their teenage desires is Luisa Cortes, played by the talented Maribel Verdú. While Luisa is an interesting character in her own right and a good motivating force, it's clear that the movie really belongs to the two boys and their intense friendship. I would call it a bromance, but anyone who has seen the movie will know that even that is being polite. Y Tu Mamá También is more than just a good movie, it's a lesson in the art of subtle screenwriting, proper narration, and natural, genuine character development. 

10 comments:

  1. Good review. I was really impressed by Verdú actually- her sexuality, her power over the guys, her calm. She was like the epicentre of the film.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't get me wrong, I thought Luisa was a powerhouse. I definitely appreciated the whole "older woman in control of her sexuality" bit, and the way she gets to command the boys. But I liked the fact that it didn't become a movie "about the girl"--while she was a big force in their lives, it was still essentially about their friendship.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Terrific review - it's a deeply layered movie - well worth a few watches! Narration is tricky to pull off - here it's wielded like a surgeon's scalpel, peeling off layers of character to let us see inside. Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks! I honestly could not have said it better--it's probably strange that the narration was one of the things that got me so pumped about this movie, but...they just pulled it off so well! It was refreshing, to say the least.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have been remiss in seeing this *hangs head waiting for noodle slap* but I will put this on my list immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's a good one! I'd recommend checking it out. It's also on netflix, which makes life easy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Really enjoyed this one and agree that Luisa's great and strong presence was really secondary (not in a bad way) to the relationship of the two boys. I particularly liked the ending and the realism of how some relationships are destined to evolve.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Agreed! They had a wonderfully played, realistic relationship throughout the whole thing, and then when it came around to the end you realize there was really...no other way to end it. I'm just happy that the movie WENT there. Then again, that's what we go to foreign movies for--to watch them do the things Hollywood is too afraid of.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this movie. I have been watching Diego Luna in various television soap operas and films since he was a kid. Well, we were both children.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for commenting! Diego Luna is a good actor to grow up with--he has yet to disappoint me. Even if he's in a movie I'm not entirely crazy about, he still manages to pull off a great role every time.

    ReplyDelete