"Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001)

Starring: Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Maribel Verdu, Ana Lopez Mercado, Nathan Grinberg

First, the Lowdown: It’s a Mexican teen sex comedy.

Yes, that’s right: I called the critically acclaimed movie a teen sex comedy. I’ll get into why in just a second. Tenoch and Julio are two Mexican teens who have just finished school. After seeing their girlfriends off on their European trip, the two friends find themselves with nothing to do over the summer except for fooling around, getting high, and general wankery.

At the wedding of a distant relative they encounter Luisa, an attractive woman several years their senior. Being young, brazen, and slightly inebriated, the two flirt with her and tell her of a secluded beach called “Heaven’s Mouth” (a place that only exists in their minds.) The later find out that Luisa is married to Tenoch’s cousin, a college professor and published writer.

The summer continues uneventfully, a party here, a joint there, when Tenoch gets an unexpected phone call from Luisa. It turns out that her husband has confessed to cheating on her and now wants to take the opportunity to see the unspoiled beauty of Heaven’s Mouth. Tenoch and Julio, both ecstatic at the opportunity to seduce Luisa, scurry together to complete their plan. After getting mumbled directions from their stoner friend Saba, borrowing the car from Julio’s sister, shopping for supplies and picking up Luisa, they set out for Heaven’s Mouth. With no idea where they are going.

“Tambien” qualifies as a sex comedy mainly because it is the characters sexuality that drives the plot forward. Luisa’s first attempt at seducing one of the teens starts out awkward (and oddly reminiscent of infamous “Mrs. Robinson” scene from The Graduate) with the boy having no idea what to do when his bluff has been called. When finally born out, the sex act that occurs is more embarrassing than sensual: it ends far too quickly for Luisa (probably because her partner is too used to having brief moments to get it over with before he is discovered), thusly dashing her fantasy of seducing an energetic, young stud.

That being said, the movie is very political without trying to be. Tenoch is the son of the current Secretary of State; Julio’s family is middle class; so neither of them has been confronted with the poverty of their fellow countrymen on a daily basis. (As an aside, it is refreshing to see a movie that takes place in Mexico where the main characters are NOT impoverished.) As their journey takes them further and further away from their home town, they see the reality of what the peasantry in the outlying countryside has to do in order to survive. To further bring this point home, the Narrator comes in and interrupts the ambient noise to give back history of the current scene.

It’s a very telling movie that goes a lot into how Mexican people of all backgrounds live in their country.

Line of the movie: “Life is like the surf, so give yourself away like the sea.”

Four and a half stars. I got my mojo working.