Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.
9 connections found
View:
9 films that influenced Y Tu Mamá También
What critics say influenced Y Tu Mamá También
But the Harold & Maude poster above the two naked high-schoolers energetically screwing in the opening shot, not to mention the arch voiceover narrator that intrudes at key moments à la Truffaut�s Jules and Jim, suggests that director Alfonso Cuarón had more in mind than parodying crass Hollywood teensploitation.
These two are gentle, sweeter-tempered cousins to the louts played by Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere in Bertrand Blier's road comedy "Going Places."
Likewise influences on the Coen brothers’ early films are clear and even Alfonso Cuaron’s “Y Tu Mama Tambien” directly references Harold and Maude in its opening shot.
Not for nothing does a “Harold and Maude” poster turn up in 2001’s “Y Tu Mamá También.”
Written by Cuarón's brother Carlos, and shot by the great Emmanuel Lubezki (who also shot "A Little Princess," "Great Expectations" and Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" ), the movie puts us in the horny, sweaty skin of its two adolescent protagonists.
The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki ("Sleepy Hollow") is very evocative, showing us the rich variety of Mexico's countryside.
Cuaron and his long-time cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (Sleepy Hollow, Ali), shot Y Tu Mamá También in the style of a documentary as much as possible.
Advertisement
Little do they know as they make a suggestive offer to take her to a private beach (which is just a figment of their imagination made up on the spot) that Luisa (Maribel Verdu, "Belle Epoque") is married to another cousin -- a dreary writer who is a little full of himself and more than a little unfaithful.
A sexually explicit comedy may come as a shock to audiences who know Cuarón from his two American movies, "A Little Princess" and "Great Expectations."
Nothing in director Alfonso Cuarón's earlier work, including A Little Princess (1995) and Great Expectations (1998), would lead us to believe that he had such a sexy, playful, vivacious film in him.
Then he went to America and made A Little Princess , a kids' movie based on a well-liked work of children's literature.
Alfonso moved to New York and made two features for Hollywood -- A Little Princess and Great Expectations -- but continued to foster the idea of making another film in Mexico.
Y Tu Mamá También is a return to roots by the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who came to America in the '90s to direct such neo-classical eye candy as A Little Princess and Great Expectations.
Just like his characters, writer-director Alfonso Cuarón -- who has played the Hollywood game in the past, helming remakes of "A Little Princess" and "Great Expectations" -- takes the road less traveled.
A sexually explicit comedy may come as a shock to audiences who know Cuarón from his two American movies, "A Little Princess" and "Great Expectations."
Nothing in director Alfonso Cuarón's earlier work, including A Little Princess (1995) and Great Expectations (1998), would lead us to believe that he had such a sexy, playful, vivacious film in him.
In general, the lively compositions and rambunctious tone of Y tu mamá también sheds light on why Cuarón's determinedly sleek remake of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow felt like such a pinched and maladroit affair.
He then made Great Expectations , a film for adults adapted, very loosely, from a novel.
Alfonso moved to New York and made two features for Hollywood -- A Little Princess and Great Expectations -- but continued to foster the idea of making another film in Mexico.
Y Tu Mamá También is a return to roots by the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who came to America in the '90s to direct such neo-classical eye candy as A Little Princess and Great Expectations.
First, in 1991, he made Soló con tu pareja , a Mexican film with political overtones, that features a lot of sex.
Advertisement
I don't think Y Tu Mamá También is nearly as richly textured or as provocative as Amores Perros, but the comparison is bankrupt anyway; Y Tu Mamá También is to Amores Perros as, say, American Pie is to Pulp Fiction -- both fine entertainments, but one generally seeks only to amuse, whereas the other is a fuller, denser package.