Kieran's 50 Favourite Films; No. 45

45. Y Tu Mama Tambien

Alfonso Cuaron, best known as the director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the underappreciated Children of Men, at the turn of the millenium, made the finest film about adolescence since Los Olvidados, which, interestingly enough, is also Mexican. Must be their water. While Y Tu Mama Tambien examines the psychology and physicality of that most troublesome of life’s segments with a powerfully honest eye, this not simply a John Hughes film with less Simple Minds, more complex orgies, it’s an astonishingly moving tale of discovery; self, sexual and otherwise. Recalling the decadent adventures of Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg, best friends Gael Garcia Bunel and Diego Luna embark upon their road trip with Maribel Verdu’s sexy, (slightly) older women with the sole intention of getting things, namely high, and their hole. It doesn’t take a tweed-jacket wearing cinephile to grasp the concept that they ‘get more than they bargained for.’ To assume predictability at this point is understandable; so far, so American Graffiti/Motorcycle Diaries/On the Road. However, the way the relationships develop, grow and crumble between the three leads is mesmerisingly, to use a word I despise using in this context, raw. 

Their deeply human anxieties; their sexual insecurities, their pseudo-Freudian maternal and paternal issues, their relatably palpable fear of mortality, all expose the immature, misunderstanding psychosis of young adults trying to establish themselves into regular life. These are two boys, initially, eminently dislikeable, who use cocksure arrogance to mask their confusion and uncertainty about, well, everything. It’s horribly clichéd to claim, but Cuaron’s masterpiece ponders adolescence and maturity, sex and love, the relationship between archaic Mexican politics and a post-modern internet society, (The story takes place in the backdrop of a mini political revolution) and yes, you guessed it, life and death. It’s visually stunning, with a colourful vibrancy accentuating the impact every fight, every joint, every... scene of intimacy, has on the viewer. It’s exciting to watch, to be part of, but also frightening. It feels real. The performances are flawless, the soundtrack perfectly implemented and the final twenty minutes are really, really quite incredible. You will feel something by the end. What you feel is hard to determine. Only 45^th on my list just now, it’ll inevitably climb its way further up. One of the most significantly affecting cinematic experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

One of my favourite one-take shots.