Episode 11—Y Tu Mamá También: Sad Sexy Summer
“More than a road trip movie and more than a coming of age movie, it’s all about transition and change.”
Luisa (Maribel Verdú, left), joins best friends Tenoch, (Diego Luna, center) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal, right) for a life-changing road trip through the Mexican countryside in Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (Producciones Anhelo).
“Real butts, real awkward. Nudity is not necessarily equivalent to sexy. Sex is not always sexy!”
In a film filled with nudity and explicit conversations about sex, the movie’s most sensual moment takes place fully clothed when Tenoch (left), Luisa (center), and Julio (right) drunkenly dance in the beach bar (Producciones Anhelo).
Original 2001 movie poster for Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (Producciones Anhelo).
Wrapping up the summer series with Annee’s sizzling selection of Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (2001), the sisters admire the smoking hot talent in front of and behind the camera 🔥as they dip their toes into Mexican socio-political history 🇲🇽 and bask in the film’s cinematographic and screenwriting glory. ☀️
Two critical moments in Y Tu Mamá También for Maribel Verdú’s Luisa visually reference films of the French New Wave: The 400 Blows (1959) finally arriving at the beach (above) and Adieu Philippine (1963) dancing in the beach bar (below) (Producciones Anhelo).
Show Notes
Film Synopsis
The basic plot centers around two best friends in their final summer of high school in Mexico City in 1999 – Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) meet Luisa (Maribel Verdu), the Spanish wife of Tenoch’s pretentious older cousin. With their girlfriends in Europe for the summer, Julio and Tenoch meet Luisa at a family wedding. Luisa is new to Mexico, and in trying to impress her, they describe an idyllic beach that hardly anyone visits and offer to take her there. Later, Luisa’s husband calls her to confess his infidelity the same day that she receives unfortunate news from her doctor. The next day, needing to run away, she accepts the boys’ invitation. The trio set off on a road trip that leaves them all forever changed.
Y Tu Mamá También, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, screenplay by Alfonso and Carlos Cuarón, cinematography by Emmanuel “El Chivo” Lubezki. Starring Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, and Diego Luna.
References
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Normal People (2002)
Mozart in the Jungle (2014-2018)
Letters to Juliet (2010)
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
No (2012)
Open Range (2003)
Amores Perros (2000)
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)
Milk (2004)
Narcos: Mexico (2018-)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Andor (2022-)
Coco (2017)
Old (2021)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Roma (2018)
Solo Con Tu Pareja (1991)
A Little Princess (1995)
Great Expectations (1998)
Children of Men (2006)
Gravity (2013)
La hora marcada (1988-1990)
The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
Black Mirror (2011-)
Like Water for Chocolate (2002)
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Tree of Life (2011)
The Revenant (2015)
Untitled David O. Russell Project (forthcoming)
Adieu Philippine (1962)
The Bachelor (2002-) and The Bachelorette (2003-)
The Wonder Years (1988-1993)
Masculin Feminin (1966)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Recommendations
Jessee: Pruébalo with Rick Martinez on Youtube
Frankee: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and The Dreamers (2003) and Burning (2018)
Annee: Amores Perros (2000) and Rudo Y Cursi (2008)
