Mexico, 2001

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Director/co-writer Alfonso Cuaron weaves so much into Y Tu Mama Tambien that a lot of it can get lost on the first viewing. Along with the central road-trip story of two young Mexicans on the verge of diving into college and more serious concerns, it's a movie about class conflict, youth and age, opportunities seized and missed, social consciousness and obliviousness, and life and death itself. As Julio and Tenoch head out across Mexico with Luisa, a beautiful older woman, they're headed for a beach they invented and don't really know how to get to. But as with any road movie, what they find along the way matters more than the geographic destination. Only mood and attention to detail can make an hour or two of traveling in a road movie flower into something that feels like a real journey, and Cuaron gives us enough details for the trip of a lifetime. Aided by an omniscient narrator whose voiceovers abruptly cut in to the soundtrack, he shows us a world that's simultaneously dying and being born as the three roll through it, caught up in their own concerns. Though Y Tu Mama is full of symbolism, it also works without regard to anything beyond its glorious sense of freedom, its frank sexuality, the alternately gritty and lush settings, and the vibrant performances of its lead actors. This is a masterpiece that can be viewed many times, one of the few movies I'm very glad I own. Incidentally, it's also a companion film to Duck Season, to which Cuaron attached his name for its U.S. release. Whereas Duck Season uses an interior world to represent the larger universe, Y Tu Mama throws its searching protagonists out into the flood of life.