Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I can't really say I understand Y Tu Mama Tambien. I liked it; I enjoyed it watching it, and I'll even recommend it, but at the end, I was just thinking, "What was the point?" It reminds me more of The 25th Hour than I'd like it to. It tells a story, but when you look at the one sentence "plot", there isn't much of a conflict, nor is there a pay-off. The one sentence description for 25th was "A man's last day before he goes to prison." The one for "Y Tu" is "Two teens and an older woman travel to a beach." In 25th, you learn a lot about your characters. Same goes here. You see how people deal with things. There's a scene near the end that's a little surprising, and has a reason behind it, but its not a climax of any sort. At the end of both films, I had to say it was a good film, but... huh? All it has is things to say about its characters. One could suppose there's a very small message, which is that sex is for two people, and not one, but the film hardly emphasizes this. I'm left slightly baffled by this movie.

But for one thing, this movie does own Spike Lee's drama- the direction is mesmerizingly good. You know direction in a movie is good when you can pick out a shot and say, "Wow, he did that to create this effect, and that is so cool." A scene near the end where we view one of the characters is particularly memorable. When the story's unnamed narrator tells us a story we normally wouldn't care about, the camera is positioned so that we are saddened by the tale. Such as, when he speaks of a car accident that happened at a certain place two years ago, we don't see the event, but we see what's left behind of it, and instead of giving us a slow pan, he fixates us on certain objects. Thank God this man (Cuaron is his name, by the way) is directing the next Harry Potter.

When you think of the stereotypical teenager, what do you think of? Two kids who like to drink, smoke, masturbate and, most especially, have a lot of sex? Tenoch (Diego Luna, who looks so much like young Paul McCartney its terrifying) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) are those kind of dudes. They're those exact kind of dudes. And they're best friends, and they live in Mexico, because the USA would never let Cuaron make this kind of film, because our morals don't permit artistic expression. They like drinking, and smoking... and I already went through all that. Now what's the average in-the-process-of-a-divorce mid-20's woman like? Smart, constantly crying, sexy, horny and just having been cheated on her by her husband? That's Ana (Ana Morelos), who is all of the above. She's a woman much smarter than you think, and you have to respect how she deals with things. And she cries because she loved her husband, who somewhat predictably cheated on her (even though he really loves her, which you kinda believe). And she's really hot. And she loves sex. Through a series of events, these three characters end up going on a road trip to a fictional beach together (and its fictional even in the story). And that's about it.

Is the movie, other than that, really about something? Not really, unless I'm a very unobservant individual. It served as useless to me, in a moral way, because I would assume that most people have figured out that its microscopic message is the truth. Even if you were to present something like this to a teenager much like Julio or Tenoch, he'd just go into dumb-teenager-voice and say, "I knew that!", so it'd serve as useless. Men... they're horrible. I tell you women, and I'll tell you again... they're horrible.

Yet for what the film does give us, it kicks butt. The dialogue has that kind of realism that I've always attempted to achieve, where its so realistic that you can't predict a word they say. Cuaron, who co-wrote the story with his brother, and I wouldn't be surprised if they talked out the conversations on their own before they wrote them. The direction is powerful beyond imagination, but I think you have to have some experience with film watching (and reviewing) to understand what I mean. It kinda showed me how similar and how different the US and Mexico are (they're far more similar than I imagined). And perhaps this movie's acting sucks. It seems good to me, but it was in a different language, so you know... I can't tell what's corny and what's not.

*Sigh*... we culturally inept youth...

Rating: B+

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age