Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Mountain Between Us

First things first, what a Golden Globes? There were some shockers in there, but I was happy to see Lady Bird get its due - even if Greta Gerwig was clearly overlooked for a Best Director nod. It also feels like Get Out didn't get proper recognition, likely because it didn't well fit any of the genres. After Sunday night, I have a LOT of movies to watch once they drop on DVD/Digital download. Unfortunately, most of the best movies don't play on my side of town - or in San Antonio at all. :/

Also, I watched Big Little Lies all in one day and I highly recommend. It's streaming on HBO.

Now, onto my week's movies. One is more than fifteen years old, has always been on my list but just never got around to watching it. The other is a newish flick that I've wanted to see since I saw the preview.  Without further ado...

Y Tu Mama Tambien
Release: March 15, 2002
Rating: R
Production Company: Anhelo Producciones
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
My Rating: 8.5/10
Themes: Coming of age, bisexuality, classism, gender, sexuality, friendship, betrayal
Content or Trigger Warnings: Graphic sexual content,  nudity

This movie had been on my list to watch for more than a decade, but I'd just never gotten around to seeing it. I'm really glad I took the time now. What a wonderful, bittersweet film. I absolutely loved it.

The film is a mosaic of a number of well-worn movie tropes: road picture, sex comedy, coming of age, older woman teaches younger men, etc and so on. But I can't think of any other film in these subgenres that moved me quite as much as this one. It's, at times, carefree and funny and at other times heartbreaking and melancholy. The two friends, Julio and Tenoch (played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna respectively) have a realistic and tight chemistry that probably comes from the fact that they were real-life friends long before director Alfonso Cuaron cast them. Their light-hearted ribbing of each other feels natural, just as their fights do, just as their eventual distance from one another feels tangibly sad and upsetting.

While obvious correlation can be made to American films like Weird Science and American Pie, this movie is far better than either both in realistically depicting the oversexed teenage male, and in offering a female character of interest that is complex, interesting, and more than just a one-dimensional object of fantasy.  In fact, I'd happily watch a movie about Luisa (played beautifully by Meribel Verdu) all on her own. I want more of her story. That's a sign of great characterization.

Below the surface of the sexed-up teens taking a road trip with a more experienced, beautiful woman is a very interesting commentary on sexuality and toxic masculinity. While Julio and Tenoch assure Luisa they have no problem with homosexuality - though they continually call each other 'faggot' - and though they do not seem to have any trouble getting each other off verbally (via mutual masturbation), the moment they cross that line to physical intimacy with Luisa on their last night together, it breaks their friendship. They might have been able to move past sleeping with each other's girlfriends, but that knowledge of attraction and intimacy shared in a small room in the middle of nowhere shattered the deep and beautiful friendship they had. They were easily able to navigate the class divide between them (Julio's mother being working class, while Tenoch's father is incredibly wealthy), they could not stand to be reminded of their physical relationship which contradicted their masculine heterosexuality. When they return to Mexico city, they go their separate ways and that is, in itself a really sad ending.

Technically speaking, the handheld camera work and consistent narration added to the sense of real-life melancholy. It was the perfect way to tell this story. The cinematography was beautiful and this movie seemed, at times, like a love letter to the country of Mexico. You can tell Cuaron has a deep affection for his home country.

I highly recommend this one if you haven't seen it. Beware, though, it is very explicit in sexual content and language. So, if that's not your thing, it might be best to skip it.


The Mountain Between Us

Release: October 6, 2017
Rating: PG-13
Production Company: 20th Century Fox, Chernin Entertainment
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
My Rating: 2.5/10
Themes: Survival, Love, Complicated emotions
Content or Trigger Warnings: A love story starring Idris Elba that is boring AF (it's enough to make you break your tv/computer)

Okay, I might be a little too hard on this movie. It's wasn't like it was offensive - unless you count misusing the talents of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba offensive (and I do). But holy god, it was boring. BORRRRING. And Winslet and Elba have about as much chemistry together as two wet mops. In fact, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan look madly in love in comparison.

The story is trite, and coming from someone who enjoys 'plane crash' and 'lost in the wilderness' flicks, that is saying something. I get what the movie was trying to do, it just didn't do it well. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think the most miscast here was Kate Winslet. She's a very fine actress but this portrayal just never seemed authentic and it threw a wrench into the whole mess. If at the end of it, you don't believe this love story, then you've wasted 2 hours of your life on a movie that doesn't make you feel much of anything. Elba pulls his own, playing an emotionally distant man who eventually shows great depths of emotion and character progression.

The last 10 minutes is certainly more interesting than the bulk of the film but it doesn't make up for over an hour of boring, tedious non-chemistry on a cold mountain. Shame on anyone who makes a movie where Idris Elba is the romantic male lead and you aren't on the edge of your seat in anticipation of his every scene. Shame.