Saturday, October 8, 2011

And Your Mother Is an MILF, Too

Y Tu Mama Tambien



I had some trepidation approaching this film.  The brief synopsizes I’d read of the film emphasized how “erotic” it was to such a degree that I wondered if it was almost pornographic.  But it was praised so highly by filmspotters, that I figured I’d give it a chance.

Well, the first scene is pretty explicit, shockingly so.  But it turns out it is a wonderful little coming of age story about two older teenage boys and an older woman who go on a trip to a beach.  Yes, there are a lot of sexual undertones and a couple sex scenes (beyond the first scene).  But the important part of the film is how the woman teaches them to have relationship—not only with women, but with each other.  They gain a full education on what it means to be faithful, to forgive, and to balance responsibility with joy.   This is about character growth, not sex.  Well, not primarily about sex.



Technical—5/5—I loved the camera work here, the unique angles, especially when they were driving and a lot of the shots come from outside.  


Interest—4/5—The earlier scenes which were laying out the boys’ characters were a little dull for me.  But once they went on the trip and their discussions in the car and her deep sorrow—it was all good and I was caught. 


Tension—4/5—Certainly a fair amount of relational tension on occasion, especially in the middle part of the film.





Characters/Emotional—3/5—Look, I believed in the characters.  I did.  But they were so separated from me or the people I knew that I just couldn’t relate.  So the characterization was fine, but the boys still seemed like cartoons of horny, out-to-have-fun teen boys—but I wasn’t one of these boys and I didn’t know them.  Still don’t.  What the woman was doing made sense by the end of the film, but, again, I don’t know if I know of anyone like this.


Theme—4/5—The need to live life to the fullest in relationship.  Pretty well realized.



Ethics—5/5—Actually, there are a lot of ethical questions brought up in this film, all relating to the right and wrong in relationship.  It openly talks about faithfulness, keeping to principle, forgiveness and freedom.  Not what I’d call a textbook film, but the questions brought up were excellent.  The most important thing was the hurt that was expressed when an ethical principle is broken.  These aren’t arbitrary ideas that can be thrown away if you don’t care for them.  And the seriousness with which the boys take relationships become the cornerstone of their maturity.  Excellent.

Personal—1/5—There was nothing I could connect to in the film, which really made it fall flat for me.  That was disappointing.

While there’s a lot of things to like about this film, I couldn’t really connect to the characters, and that leaves it off my top 100 for certain.

1 comment:

  1. Fucked over“Suck a dick.” “That takes balls. “Once you start listening for it, you’ll realize that sex is everywhere in our colloquial vernacular.

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