Y Tu Mamá También

Director: Alfonso Cuarón Alfonso Cuarón

Overview

Mexican-born, New York-based filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón directed this Mexican box-office smash hit about a pair of randy upper-class buddies that sparked some controversy for its frank depiction of drug use and sexual exploration. With their respective girlfriends away in Europe, Julio (Gael García Bernal) and his upper-class friend Tenoch (Diego Luna) are looking forward to a summer full of drink, drugs, and cheap meaningless sex. During a wedding, they meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú) -- the 28-year-old wife of Tenoch's scholarly cousin -- and try to convince her to go on a road trip to Heaven's Mouth, a made-up beach paradise the two claim is on the Oaxacan coast. To their surprise, Luisa -- who is looking to escape her troubled life for a spell -- agrees to go along. Two days into the trip, tension starts to build between the two friends: Luisa has had sex with each, and now both lads are not-so-quietly vying for her affection. Soon simmering jealousies boil over into savage arguments, threatening to completely destroy their friendship. After an enormously successful run in Mexico and Guatemala, this film was screened to much acclaim at the 2001 Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/08/2021
UPC:	0715515259613
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Time:	1:46:00
Sales rank:	4,025

Special Features

New, restored 2k digital film transfer, supervised by Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki and approved by Director Alfonso Cuaron, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Transfer Audio soundtrack; Two new pieces on the making of the film, featuring interviews, recorded at the time of production and in 2014, with actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Maribel Verdu; Alfonso Cuaron; cowriter Carlos Cuaron; and Lubezki; New interview with philosopher Slavoj Zizek about the film's social and political aspects; On-set documentary from 2001; Deleted Scenes; You Owe Me One (2002), a short film by Carlos Cuaron; Trailers ; New English subtitle translation; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Charles Taylor and reprinted character biographies by Carlos Cuaron and Alfonso Cuaron

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Maribel Verdú	Luisa Cortes
Gael García Bernal	Julio Zapata
Diego Luna	Tenoch Iturbide
Diana Bracho	Silvia Allende de Iturbide
Emilio Echeverria	Miguel Iturbide
Veronica Langer	María Eugenia Calles de Huerta
Arturo Rios	Esteban Morelos
Martha Aura	Enriqueta 'Queta' Allende
Daniel Jiménez Cacho	Narrator

Technical Credits

Alfonso Cuarón

Carlos Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón	Director,Editor,Producer,Screenwriter
Miguel A. Alvarez	Art Director
Carlos Cuarón	Screenwriter
Gabriela Diaque	Costumes/Costume Designer
Annette Fradera	Musical Direction/Supervision
Jose Antonio Garcia	Sound/Sound Designer
Amy J. Kaufman	Executive Producer
Amy Kaufman	Executive Producer
David Linde	Executive Producer
Liza Richardson	Musical Direction/Supervision
Emmanuel Lubezki	Cinematographer
Alex Rodriguez	Editor
Jorge Vergara	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Adolescent libidos fuel an unusual ménage à trois in Y Tu Mamá También, an erotic and sophisticated comedy-drama from Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón. The story is simple -- two privileged, sex-obsessed teens (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) take an older woman (Maribel Verdú) on an outing to a beach -- and plays out on one level like a teen-male fantasy. But there's more here than meets the eye, as the film's buoyant tone is repeatedly mitigated by an omniscient narrator. In the style of Jean-Luc Godard, this commentary uncovers hidden motivations and places the characters and events in a broader and often unsetting context. Meanwhile, the story unfolds as a road trip of sexual initiation, including some powerful personal revelations and homoerotic tensions that threaten to destroy the boys' friendship. The actors succeed with some truly challenging material here, handling graphic dialogue and physical intimacy with a grace that is at once sexy and vulnerable. Make no mistake: Y Tu Mamá También candidly explores its subject with a healthy and stimulating sense of humor and fantasy. But there's a dangerous undertow as well, resulting in a truly striking film of uncommon power.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

Y Tu Mamá También has been casually referred to as a Spanish-language American Pie, perhaps because both films include footage of taboo body fluids floating in liquids they don't usually call home -- a swimming pool here, a beer there. But that comparison doesn't nearly do justice to Alfonso Cuarón's bold, sexually explicit yet artistically justified coming-of-age piece, which climbs outside the box at every turn. More generous films to associate it with are Run Lola Run and Amélie; both share Mamá's curiosity about the interrelationship of seemingly unlike people and places, and contemplate the pasts and futures of bit players in a manner that seems essential, not superfluous. Yet it's not as glossy as those films, either. Mamá retains a documentary-style realism that's less dependant on set pieces, preferring the messy yet basically benign continuum of life. Mamá's illuminating narration is never intrusive, even though it cuts off the soundtrack in a way that sounds like abrupt speaker failure; it contextualizes the action while leaving the deeper profundities to the viewer's own thoughts. Cuarón's fascinating decisions are as regular as the free-flowing bull sessions so naturally performed by lead actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal in and around Mexico City, and on their road trip to self-discovery. Cuarón, seeming more comfortable in his element than in a Hollywood release like the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Great Expectations, challenges the actors' talents in a handful of takes that last minutes on end, many of which include the camera moving seamlessly through the environment. Even with all these accomplishments, it's still as funny and as titillating as anything out there -- maybe because it doesn't have to try so hard to do either.

All Movie Guide

Cuaron's hot-blooded, haunting and wildly erotic film revels in the pleasures of the flesh without losing touch with thought and feeling.

Rolling Stone - Peter Travers

There are so many good things to say about this film it's hard to find a statement that really nails it. Perhaps we can leave at this: Y Tu Mamá También is originality writ large.

Washington Post - Desson Howe

Echoes the unmistakable freshness and excitement of the Nouvelle Vague, the sense of joy in being alive and making movies, that made those works distinctive and unforgettable.

Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan