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Review: And Your Mom Too (Y tu mamá también) (2001)
This was an interesting movie. It was pretty low-key, but as I'm reflecting back on it, I'm finding more and more hidden layers to it. I'd still recommend it as a coming-of-age, road trip movie, but warn for sexual content.
Spoilers.
Story
The story is simple of Tenoch and Julio, two teenage friends, going on a road trip to the beach with an older lady. Most of the actual events of the movie are somewhat mundane, and yet it's bracketed by major events in the characters' lives. This trip was just their temporary escape as they drift off forever.
For Tenoch and Julio, they were great friends before, but after the road trip, they drift apart. They met once at a cafe, but never again. There are two main reasons for this. One is that their sexual encounter was something they didn't want to bring up. Regardless of whether they were truly bisexual/gay, they found the experience embarrassing. The other reason is a bit more symbolic. Tenoch was from a very high-class family, and Julio was from a working class family. This story always had politics in the background, and I think it was inevitable that Tenoch and Julio would never truly mix as they continued on in a lifestyle befitting of what they were born into.
Before the trip, Luisa had found out about her health condition. She'd also been having marital problems due to her husband's serial cheating. The narrator mentioned that Luisa often had trouble accepting her freedom. Knowing that she had a limited time to live, Luisa took a chance to be daring, traveling with Julio and Tenoch, and later staying with Chuy and Mabel to further explore Mexico. She ended up dying a month after Tenoch and Julio left, but I don't doubt that she enjoyed her time unattached and free.
I don't think there's too much to write about in terms of the story. As I mentioned, the framework of the story was pretty simple. I think there's much more to discuss in terms of the themes.
Production
The acting was really interesting. It didn't feel "over-polished." Julio and Tenoch really felt like two teenage edgelords who were constantly trying to one-up each other, boasting about their sexual escapades and such. Even Luisa, who was supposed to be this untouchable elegant older lady, was not perfect, and not afraid to show her rough edges. The acting just felt very natural.
I also have no complaints about the cinematography. I trust Alfonso Cuaron to know what he's doing, and he delivered a movie with a good mix of both narrative and visual storytelling.
Characters
Tenoch Iturbide
Tenoch was the son of a politician. We saw that he lived in a very lavish mansion, with maids serving all of his needs. It was revealed that he was mostly raised by his nanny, and likely looked up to her as a mother more than his actual mother. Tenoch wanted to study literature, but his father wanted him to study economics. This was a point of conflict between them.
In terms of his actual personality, I felt that he and Julio were pretty similar. At that age, many teens' "personalities" are just imitations of those around them and what they think is cool. That behaviour was definitely seen with Tenoch. I'll talk more about Tenoch and Julio's personalities in the themes section below.
As mentioned, things only grew awkward between Tenoch and Julio after they had a threesome with Luisa. Likely he felt embarrassed about the experience and never wanted to talk about it again, which is partially a sign of the homophobia in society at the time, which I'll talk about later.
After the time skip, we found out that Tenoch started dating a neighbour, and he was taking economics at university, as his father wanted. We see that Tenoch is on the track that would be expected of kids in his position (i.e. high class). He was likely dating a girl from another rich family, and his background in economics in addition to his family connections would likely put him in positions of power in the future.
Julio Zapata
Julio lived with his mom and sister. He was from a typical middle-class family. They weren't rich, but they weren't impoverished.
As I mentioned, Julio and Tenoch were pretty similar personality-wise. They were just imitating what they thought was cool.
After the time skip, Julio was set to be studying biology at university. I'm assuming that he was probably studying to be a doctor or scientist, which is of course very prestigious, but still something more practical as opposed to something intangible literature or economics (i.e. what Tenoch was thinking of studying). Again, this kind of reflects Julio's social class.
Luisa Cortes
Luisa was married to Jano, who was Tenoch's cousin, and a writer. We saw that Jano was a bit snobbish about his profession, and Luisa was more yielding to Jano. This was probably what the narrator meant when they said that Luisa found it difficult to accept her freedom.
Jano was always cheating on Luisa, and Luisa was always forgiving him. For what reason, it is not known. Perhaps it was because Luisa was without family for so long. She lost her parents at a young age, and only had her grandmother for a short time until she died. And after that, Luisa only had her husband. I guess Luisa was struggling with the idea of not having one person you could always go back to.
After Luisa found out about her cancer, she decided to be more spontaneous, going on a road trip with Tenoch and Julio, and finally leaving Jano, even if it was for only a short period of time.
Though Luisa was a bit more carefree, I still think she was conscious of Tenoch and Julio's relationship. She thought that sleeping with Tenoch had ruined Tenoch and Julio's relationship, so she tried to atone by sleeping with Julio. And finally, she tried to bridge the gap by having a threesome, but that ended up going awry.
At the end of the movie, Luisa was visiby happy, spending her days playing with Mabel's kids, and exploring beaches and coves. It was only for a month, but she was living for herself in those days.
Themes
Politics and class divide
There was a heavy political backdrop for this movie. Tenoch's family had heavy political connections, and Tenoch himself was named for patriotic reasons (his name was Aztech as opposed to the originally planned Hernan, which was Spanish). The three main characters also weaved their lives around politics daily. It became a part of life that was easy to ignore for them. For example, Tenoch and Julio casually weaved through a protest to find Julio's sister so that they could borrow the car. And during the road trip, Tenoch, Julio, and Luisa would pass by police checkpoints and other such events with political undertones.
The fact was that Tenoch and Julio were from different worlds, as I've already noted. The only reason they were able to stick together was because they made an effort to bond over the interests they had in common (even if it was just drugs and sex). They managed to have a friendship despite their class differences, even having Julio over at Tenoch's family parties, etc.
But once Tenoch and Julio decided that they couldn't be friends anymore, politics and the class divide very easily pushed them even further apart, to the point that they'd never see each other ever again after that coffee shop meeting.
It was mentioned that Tenoch was mostly raised by his nanny, and that he felt a lot of affection for her. When the trio had passed by his nanny's hometown, he'd felt curious, but had said nothing. Nannies leaving their families and homes to raise other people's children has always been a very jarring instance of class divide. I don't think Tenoch ever thought about class divide when he saw the road sign, but rather, I think he just shocked himself that his nanny had never left his side to return home to visit.
Tenoch and Julio had their manifesto, which was essentially a bro code. However, it was revealed that they'd both broken it, having slept with each other's girlfriends on the regular. Though at first, it seemed like they were fine even after making up, I wonder if breaking the bro code was part of why they'd lost their connection. I also wonder whether Tenoch and Julio had ever suspected each other of having slept with each other's girlfriends, and that they were just upset that now it was confirmed, or whether they were truly in the dark. In any case, I feel like the "illusion" of the manifesto might've been one of the things that was keeping their friendship together, and once one part of it had been broken, it crumbled.
At the end of the movie, Tenoch ended up dating a neighbour, which as I said, was probably another righ girl. And Julio was dating a rich girl at the beginning of the movie, but had broken up with her by the end. He'd ended up dating a girl he'd met at his French class. So like their friendships, their dating lives were also guided by social class, whether they'd intended for it or not.
Truth
Part of the maniesto was that the truth was there, but unattainable. I think there were instances in the film in which the characters were purposely stepping around the truth, because saying it out loud was too dangerous, too taboo.
That might've been another reason that Julio and Tenoch were as tight as they were. If someone had pointed out that their friendship shouldn't have worked, then maybe it would stop working then. You could say that that was what happened during the movie, when the truths of their infidelity came out. Later, when they'd had sex (together with Luisa), they'd rather ignore the fact that it ever happened over keeping their friendship.
Luisa was kind of suppressing her own truth too. I doubt she'd ever confided in anybody else about her marital affairs, and clearly she didn't tell anybody about her cancer. But Luisa finally broke her silence and hinted to the boys about her marital issues. I guess that was the start of her finally leaving her marriage. And only in doing so, was she finally free, which was something that she seemed to be so afraid of before. As for her health, I think it was just that not thinking about it allowed her to live out the rest of her life in true freedom, disregarding her impending death. This was a case in which avoiding the truth ended up being for the better.
Opinions
Luisa had mentioned that when she was at parties with Jano, people would ask her for her opinions on certain things, and Luisa would politiely decline. In this day and age, people are always pressured to have opinions on everything, when the truth is it's hard to have such a strong opinion on so many things. In a way, Luisa was living her own truth by simply refusing to answer, whereas academics might've been hiding their true, more nuanced takes, behind more scathing and wide-sweeping statements.
I would say that Tenoch and Julio also didn't have a strong opinion on politics, only caring about things that personally affected them. Tenoch's family was part of the ruling class, and at the same time, Julio's sister was marching in poltical protests. But because they didn't seem to have strong opinions on politics, that might be why they were eventually so easily swept up in it, each of them falling back into their social classes and losing that bridge they had between them.
Masculinity and sexuality
Tenoch and Julio bonded a lot about having sex. They even jerked off together, talking about women. It was a bit of a surprise that they were so intent on proving to Luisa that they were good boyfriends who only made love to their girlfriends tenderly.
I guess them finding out that the slept with each other's girlfriends was more of a blow to their bro code, but it was probably also a small blow to their masculinity, as their girlfriends sought sexual satisfaction from people other than their girlfriends.
The morning after they had sex together with Luisa, Tenoch and Julio were very ashamed and awkward with each other. I'm guessing there was a homophobic sentiment in society at the time, and it was a blow to their masculinity knowing that they'd had sex with a man. Whether they enjoyed it was another thing, as their shame overshadowed even their basic feelings for each other. So we'll never know whether they even enjoyed it, all we know was that they hated that they'd done it.
Overall
Sorry, my thoughts are kind of all over the place. But this was still an interesting movie. I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for a coming-of-age story. Like most coming-of-age movies, the story is very bare bones, and it's more about the mudane conversations and events that shape what the characters are going through.
Spoilers.
Story
The story is simple of Tenoch and Julio, two teenage friends, going on a road trip to the beach with an older lady. Most of the actual events of the movie are somewhat mundane, and yet it's bracketed by major events in the characters' lives. This trip was just their temporary escape as they drift off forever.
For Tenoch and Julio, they were great friends before, but after the road trip, they drift apart. They met once at a cafe, but never again. There are two main reasons for this. One is that their sexual encounter was something they didn't want to bring up. Regardless of whether they were truly bisexual/gay, they found the experience embarrassing. The other reason is a bit more symbolic. Tenoch was from a very high-class family, and Julio was from a working class family. This story always had politics in the background, and I think it was inevitable that Tenoch and Julio would never truly mix as they continued on in a lifestyle befitting of what they were born into.
Before the trip, Luisa had found out about her health condition. She'd also been having marital problems due to her husband's serial cheating. The narrator mentioned that Luisa often had trouble accepting her freedom. Knowing that she had a limited time to live, Luisa took a chance to be daring, traveling with Julio and Tenoch, and later staying with Chuy and Mabel to further explore Mexico. She ended up dying a month after Tenoch and Julio left, but I don't doubt that she enjoyed her time unattached and free.
I don't think there's too much to write about in terms of the story. As I mentioned, the framework of the story was pretty simple. I think there's much more to discuss in terms of the themes.
Production
The acting was really interesting. It didn't feel "over-polished." Julio and Tenoch really felt like two teenage edgelords who were constantly trying to one-up each other, boasting about their sexual escapades and such. Even Luisa, who was supposed to be this untouchable elegant older lady, was not perfect, and not afraid to show her rough edges. The acting just felt very natural.
I also have no complaints about the cinematography. I trust Alfonso Cuaron to know what he's doing, and he delivered a movie with a good mix of both narrative and visual storytelling.
Characters
Tenoch Iturbide
Tenoch was the son of a politician. We saw that he lived in a very lavish mansion, with maids serving all of his needs. It was revealed that he was mostly raised by his nanny, and likely looked up to her as a mother more than his actual mother. Tenoch wanted to study literature, but his father wanted him to study economics. This was a point of conflict between them.
In terms of his actual personality, I felt that he and Julio were pretty similar. At that age, many teens' "personalities" are just imitations of those around them and what they think is cool. That behaviour was definitely seen with Tenoch. I'll talk more about Tenoch and Julio's personalities in the themes section below.
As mentioned, things only grew awkward between Tenoch and Julio after they had a threesome with Luisa. Likely he felt embarrassed about the experience and never wanted to talk about it again, which is partially a sign of the homophobia in society at the time, which I'll talk about later.
After the time skip, we found out that Tenoch started dating a neighbour, and he was taking economics at university, as his father wanted. We see that Tenoch is on the track that would be expected of kids in his position (i.e. high class). He was likely dating a girl from another rich family, and his background in economics in addition to his family connections would likely put him in positions of power in the future.
Julio Zapata
Julio lived with his mom and sister. He was from a typical middle-class family. They weren't rich, but they weren't impoverished.
As I mentioned, Julio and Tenoch were pretty similar personality-wise. They were just imitating what they thought was cool.
After the time skip, Julio was set to be studying biology at university. I'm assuming that he was probably studying to be a doctor or scientist, which is of course very prestigious, but still something more practical as opposed to something intangible literature or economics (i.e. what Tenoch was thinking of studying). Again, this kind of reflects Julio's social class.
Luisa Cortes
Luisa was married to Jano, who was Tenoch's cousin, and a writer. We saw that Jano was a bit snobbish about his profession, and Luisa was more yielding to Jano. This was probably what the narrator meant when they said that Luisa found it difficult to accept her freedom.
Jano was always cheating on Luisa, and Luisa was always forgiving him. For what reason, it is not known. Perhaps it was because Luisa was without family for so long. She lost her parents at a young age, and only had her grandmother for a short time until she died. And after that, Luisa only had her husband. I guess Luisa was struggling with the idea of not having one person you could always go back to.
After Luisa found out about her cancer, she decided to be more spontaneous, going on a road trip with Tenoch and Julio, and finally leaving Jano, even if it was for only a short period of time.
Though Luisa was a bit more carefree, I still think she was conscious of Tenoch and Julio's relationship. She thought that sleeping with Tenoch had ruined Tenoch and Julio's relationship, so she tried to atone by sleeping with Julio. And finally, she tried to bridge the gap by having a threesome, but that ended up going awry.
At the end of the movie, Luisa was visiby happy, spending her days playing with Mabel's kids, and exploring beaches and coves. It was only for a month, but she was living for herself in those days.
Themes
Politics and class divide
There was a heavy political backdrop for this movie. Tenoch's family had heavy political connections, and Tenoch himself was named for patriotic reasons (his name was Aztech as opposed to the originally planned Hernan, which was Spanish). The three main characters also weaved their lives around politics daily. It became a part of life that was easy to ignore for them. For example, Tenoch and Julio casually weaved through a protest to find Julio's sister so that they could borrow the car. And during the road trip, Tenoch, Julio, and Luisa would pass by police checkpoints and other such events with political undertones.
The fact was that Tenoch and Julio were from different worlds, as I've already noted. The only reason they were able to stick together was because they made an effort to bond over the interests they had in common (even if it was just drugs and sex). They managed to have a friendship despite their class differences, even having Julio over at Tenoch's family parties, etc.
But once Tenoch and Julio decided that they couldn't be friends anymore, politics and the class divide very easily pushed them even further apart, to the point that they'd never see each other ever again after that coffee shop meeting.
It was mentioned that Tenoch was mostly raised by his nanny, and that he felt a lot of affection for her. When the trio had passed by his nanny's hometown, he'd felt curious, but had said nothing. Nannies leaving their families and homes to raise other people's children has always been a very jarring instance of class divide. I don't think Tenoch ever thought about class divide when he saw the road sign, but rather, I think he just shocked himself that his nanny had never left his side to return home to visit.
Tenoch and Julio had their manifesto, which was essentially a bro code. However, it was revealed that they'd both broken it, having slept with each other's girlfriends on the regular. Though at first, it seemed like they were fine even after making up, I wonder if breaking the bro code was part of why they'd lost their connection. I also wonder whether Tenoch and Julio had ever suspected each other of having slept with each other's girlfriends, and that they were just upset that now it was confirmed, or whether they were truly in the dark. In any case, I feel like the "illusion" of the manifesto might've been one of the things that was keeping their friendship together, and once one part of it had been broken, it crumbled.
At the end of the movie, Tenoch ended up dating a neighbour, which as I said, was probably another righ girl. And Julio was dating a rich girl at the beginning of the movie, but had broken up with her by the end. He'd ended up dating a girl he'd met at his French class. So like their friendships, their dating lives were also guided by social class, whether they'd intended for it or not.
Truth
Part of the maniesto was that the truth was there, but unattainable. I think there were instances in the film in which the characters were purposely stepping around the truth, because saying it out loud was too dangerous, too taboo.
That might've been another reason that Julio and Tenoch were as tight as they were. If someone had pointed out that their friendship shouldn't have worked, then maybe it would stop working then. You could say that that was what happened during the movie, when the truths of their infidelity came out. Later, when they'd had sex (together with Luisa), they'd rather ignore the fact that it ever happened over keeping their friendship.
Luisa was kind of suppressing her own truth too. I doubt she'd ever confided in anybody else about her marital affairs, and clearly she didn't tell anybody about her cancer. But Luisa finally broke her silence and hinted to the boys about her marital issues. I guess that was the start of her finally leaving her marriage. And only in doing so, was she finally free, which was something that she seemed to be so afraid of before. As for her health, I think it was just that not thinking about it allowed her to live out the rest of her life in true freedom, disregarding her impending death. This was a case in which avoiding the truth ended up being for the better.
Opinions
Luisa had mentioned that when she was at parties with Jano, people would ask her for her opinions on certain things, and Luisa would politiely decline. In this day and age, people are always pressured to have opinions on everything, when the truth is it's hard to have such a strong opinion on so many things. In a way, Luisa was living her own truth by simply refusing to answer, whereas academics might've been hiding their true, more nuanced takes, behind more scathing and wide-sweeping statements.
I would say that Tenoch and Julio also didn't have a strong opinion on politics, only caring about things that personally affected them. Tenoch's family was part of the ruling class, and at the same time, Julio's sister was marching in poltical protests. But because they didn't seem to have strong opinions on politics, that might be why they were eventually so easily swept up in it, each of them falling back into their social classes and losing that bridge they had between them.
Masculinity and sexuality
Tenoch and Julio bonded a lot about having sex. They even jerked off together, talking about women. It was a bit of a surprise that they were so intent on proving to Luisa that they were good boyfriends who only made love to their girlfriends tenderly.
I guess them finding out that the slept with each other's girlfriends was more of a blow to their bro code, but it was probably also a small blow to their masculinity, as their girlfriends sought sexual satisfaction from people other than their girlfriends.
The morning after they had sex together with Luisa, Tenoch and Julio were very ashamed and awkward with each other. I'm guessing there was a homophobic sentiment in society at the time, and it was a blow to their masculinity knowing that they'd had sex with a man. Whether they enjoyed it was another thing, as their shame overshadowed even their basic feelings for each other. So we'll never know whether they even enjoyed it, all we know was that they hated that they'd done it.
Overall
Sorry, my thoughts are kind of all over the place. But this was still an interesting movie. I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for a coming-of-age story. Like most coming-of-age movies, the story is very bare bones, and it's more about the mudane conversations and events that shape what the characters are going through.