Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

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Two restless Mexican teenagers (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) take a road trip with an older woman (Maribel Verdú) who just learned her husband cheated on her. Their destination is a private beach that may or may not exist, but as with all road trip movies, it’s the journey that counts. Demons of the past are confronted, sexual discoveries are made, and new perspectives on life are gained.

Writer/director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity) makes us voyeurs on this intimate excursion. The boys’ friendship is challenged by the woman’s presence, while the woman struggles with her own secrets. I admire how Cuarón and his brother, co-writer Carlos Cuarón, depict sexuality in the film. It’s not beautified or exalted, it’s just human behavior. And as the characters become more isolated from the world on their journey, they let their guards down. Sexuality becomes more fluid and intimate, even polyamorous. Bernal and Luna give raw, exuberant performances, with Verdú hitting all the right notes with the script’s most dynamic character.

Cuarón would become famous for long, elaborate camera movements in his later films, and you’ll find a couple of early experiments along those lines here. He implements hand-held camera throughout most of the movie, but it’s never nauseating or gratuitous. It heightens the immediacy of the action and our inclusion in the moment. He also uses frequent third-person narration in the film, informing us about characters’ pasts and futures. The narration also steps us back far enough to consider the politics and socio-economic situations surrounding the characters. The film would make perfect sense as a coming of age road movie without this narration, but with it, Cuarón isn’t just educating us about Mexican society — he’s reinforcing the preciousness of intimacy. Intimacy becomes a privilege to be had and shared, in a world where so many struggle to find and keep it — for lack of resources, for lack of perspective, or even for lack of time.

At one point in the film, as our heroes drive through a bend in the road, the narrator tells us of a deadly car wreck that occurred there ten years prior — a simple, seemingly irrelevant piece of information, except that death always has a way of providing perspective. Jealousy and inhibitions don’t stand a chance against it.

Oscar Nomination: Best Original Screenplay (Alfonso Cuarón & Carlos Cuarón)