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David Ehrenstein wrote:Then you must see his superb A Little Princess, closely followed by his awe-inspiringly great Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Awe-inspiring may even be an understatement for Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Saarijas wrote:

David Ehrenstein wrote:Then you must see his superb A Little Princess, closely followed by his awe-inspiringly great Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Awe-inspiring may even be an understatement for Y Tu Mama Tambien.

or even an overstatement

Y Tu Mama Tambien...OH YES! Where have you been, Magic?!

flyonthewall2983 wrote:

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I gotta admit, I wasn't really impressed. When the legend "from the director of Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire" or whatever showed up, all bets were off for me to take this seriously.

I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my fucking life. It's brilliant.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a pretty great film in and of itself. Cuaron's on a roll, as far as I'm concerned. Three great films back to back to back.

Saarijas wrote:

David Ehrenstein wrote:Then you must see his superb A Little Princess, closely followed by his awe-inspiringly great Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Awe-inspiring may even be an understatement for Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Did I miss something? Y Tu Mama Tambien is good, definitely above average, but not great... Maybe I just watched it too soon after Amores Perros? Because it paled in comparison...

Y Tu Mama Tambien has, for my money, one of the greatest endings in the history of the cinema.

It's the only film I've every seen that shows what horny teenage boys are really like. And it sure as hell ain't American Pie.

It's a masterpiece about class and death.

125100 wrote:Did I miss something? Y Tu Mama Tambien is good, definitely above average, but not great... Maybe I just watched it too soon after Amores Perros? Because it paled in comparison...

Why would there be a comparison? Besides the fact that both films were made in Mexico, do they have anything in common?

David Ehrenstein wrote:Y Tu Mama Tambien has, for my money, one of the greatest endings in the history of the cinema.

It's the only film I've every seen that shows what horny teenage boys are really like. And it sure as hell ain't American Pie.

Yes about the ending. There is something incredibly powerful once you realize that the person you are staring at will never see you again.

Re: horny teenage boys, see Ken Park.

What's most powerful to me is the last word: "Check!"

The film is a settling of acounts of modern Mexican history done in the style of a hommage to one of Cuaron's favorite films (and mine) Adieu Phillipine.

Jeff wrote:Why would there be a comparison? Besides the fact that both films were made in Mexico, do they have anything in common?

Well other than both are Mexican and share the same actor in a leading role, no, but why do they need to have anything in common? So we can all be pretentious assholes and analyze the hell out of it. I just mentioned the two because I watched them one after the other so perhaps the highs of Amores Perros made the lows of Y Tu Mama Tambien feel lower than it actually was.

Saying that I still think it's little more than mediocre, just because it's foreign it automatically scores more points with SOME people when in reality if it'd had been made by Hollywood it would be regarded no higher than American Pie, Road Trip or any of those other coming-of-age-sex-comedies

125100 wrote:

Jeff wrote:Why would there be a comparison? Besides the fact that both films were made in Mexico, do they have anything in common?

Well other than both are Mexican and share the same actor in a leading role, no, but why do they need to have anything in common? So we can all be pretentious assholes and analyze the hell out of it. I just mentioned the two because I watched them one after the other so perhaps the highs of Amores Perros made the lows of Y Tu Mama Tambien feel lower than it actually was.

Saying that I still think it's little more than mediocre, just because it's foreign it automatically scores more points with SOME people when in reality if it'd had been made by Hollywood it would be regarded no higher than American Pie, Road Trip or any of those other coming-of-age-sex-comedies

They do need to have something in common so you can compare them (that's what humans do, take lots of data and try to find connections, commonly known in the shorthand as "thinking"). If I wanted to compare, say, The Notebook to The United States of Leland a lot of people would probably have an ISSUE with that. They both have Ryan Gosling in them, so of course only a pretentious asshole *wouldn't* compare them (I'm being sarcastic here for anyone confused). All you really had to say was "they're both from Mexico and were marketed to US audiences at about the same time," but no, that's not good enough.

And Y Tu Mama Tambien is a hell of a lot more artful, convincing, powerful, and honest than the rest of those coming of age comedies you mentioned, or didn't mention, and it still has some very funny moments. I actually thought Amores Perros to be extremely mediocre (just a notch above Spun), and it only gave me the impression that in Mexico all they have are bad drivers, dogfights, poorly developed characters, and annoyingly short scenes.

125100 wrote:Saying that I still think it's little more than mediocre, just because it's foreign it automatically scores more points with SOME people when in reality if it'd had been made by Hollywood it would be regarded no higher than American Pie, Road Trip or any of those other coming-of-age-sex-comedies

The difference between them is not just the language spoken - if during American Pie you saw the lead up on the tabletop humping away and suddenly a voiceover started telling you about the minimum wage serf employed long hours in an unhygenic pie factory to create the thing currently being used in a sex act, then it would have more in common with Y Tu Mama Tambien!

That is the most exciting part of the film, the way these horny characters are travelling through the landscape in complete ignorance of events either nationally important or of personal tragedies, and the fact that they are just horny lads makes the audience role as witnesses to these digressions extremely important as we have to bear witness ourselves rather than experiencing that witnessing secondhand through the growing understanding of character surrogates.

The woman could be seen in a similar way, in that she obviously has issues that cause her to go with the boys and do what she does through the course of the film that are never revealed to them - they're just glad a hot babe is travelling with them!

That final scene in the cafe is extremely powerful not only for calling time on the history but for the realisation that the childish innocence of the two guys has passed on to a greater awareness of their place in the world around them, with only memories of that time left as people once close part ways completely. There is also the sense that even their little story is important and memorable on the human level and could become another anecdote told in voiceover as someone else passes that beach and have their own experiences on it, forever making it their beach in their memories.

To be honest American Pie and Road Trip aren't even in the same league, and I don't think they want to be!

I've been making my way through the extra features on the Children of Men DVD for the last couple of days and as jbeall pointed out above, the philosopher Slavoj Zizek comments that Children of Men is a similar style film to Y Tu Mama Tambien, with an importance placed on the cultural and political environment more than the characters themselves, who are just negotiating their way through it to perform their own tasks - we as the viewers are the ones meant to be scanning the scenery and sets for information about the world, not wait for one of the characters to say something like "Hey, remember the 2012 Olympics becoming the next Munich? Do you? Do you remember that?", all while nudging another character who might respond with a "Oh yeah, I heard something about that!"

Y tu mama tambien and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia make for a fantastic double feature.

And I can't convey the degree to which I think Y tu mama is superior to Amores Perros.

GringoTex wrote:Y tu mama tambien and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia make for a fantastic double feature.

And I can't convey the degree to which I think Y tu mama is superior to Amores Perros.

I love both Y tu mama and Amores Perros, but I would have a hard time claiming that one is clearly better; apples to oranges. I think they're both brilliant.

Eeenyway, Y tu mama tambien and Cuaron's entry in the Harry Potter series are both fantastic. Cuaron's Potter flick is definitely head and shoulders above the other films in the series.

GringoTex wrote:Y tu mama tambien and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia make for a fantastic double feature.

... for me to poop on.

GringoTex wrote:And I can't convey the degree to which I think Y tu mama is superior to Amores Perros.

I can't believe someone would mention those two films in the same breath, much less that anyone could actually prefer "Perros" (or even admire it in the slightest way beyond that first story and Bernal's smoldering presence).

125100 wrote:Well other than both are Mexican and share the same actor in a leading role, no, but why do they need to have anything in common? So we can all be pretentious assholes and analyze the hell out of it.

I inquired as to what they might have in common because you suggested that Y Tu Mamá También "paled in comparison" to Amores Perros. I was just asking what the basis for such a comparison might be.

justeleblanc wrote:

GringoTex wrote:Y tu mama tambien and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia make for a fantastic double feature.

... for me to poop on.

There's that. Then there's also the fascinating contrast between a gringo Mexican road trip and a homegrown one.

The use of cats twice in the film seems to be to create a sense of security - that if cats have chosen to be there this is a safe place to be. However I think there is also the suggestion that their presence suggests only a limited period of safety, not that the characters can relax and think they have finished their mission. The first cat appears climbing up Theo's leg in the farmhouse after Julian is killed, and the image of it clawing it's way up Theo's leg and his slight 'ouch' is followed by the scene when he overhears the conversation that makes it necessary to escape what had seemed to be their friends in the group.

The second cat appears in the Bexhill ghetto, and watches the tanks rolling by in the street below with Theo as Kee manages to briefly relax and enjoy feeding her daughter for the first time.

I forgot the first cat that Theo is shown sitting with on his first visit to Jasper's hideaway from the modern world, an environment that feels comfortable and safe that first visit but which is soon violated first just by the concerns of the outside world when Theo needs to use it as a safehouse, and then the outside world itself. I suppose little did Jasper know that Theo would be the chink in his hideaway's armour.

colinr0380 wrote:I suppose little did Jasper know that Theo would be the chink in his hideaway's armour.

I kind of thought that based on what we know of Jasper's character, he would have loved to go out the way he did. He was an infamous political cartoonist, former activist, radical idealist, and a revolutionist sympathizer. He has been hiding out in the woods smoking pot and cracking jokes while taking care of his invalid wife and living a peaceful, yet probably rather unrewarding life. Then, out of nowhere, Theo, who has also turned his back on his former political quests with the debilitating death of his son, brings the revolution right back through Jasper's front door. I would dare suggest that Jasper's eyes light up just a little at the idea that he has once again become an important factor in the fight for positive reform in the world. He's a consummate rebel that had been pacified and lulled into a sense of comfort, but all the while the human race was slowly dying around him and he had lost the will to fight… until this pregnant woman walks through his door. This is the death for the cause he had always dreamed he was destined for…

True, and it probably beats the suicide plan he was considering, letting him die a hero. It is interesting though to wonder whether he let Theo into his life hoping that one day that kind of situation would occur or whether it caught him unawares and allowed him to capitalise on it to have a final heroic moment.

The novel is now being adapted into a TV series.

Just watched this again tonight. Jasper's monologue about faith and chance has been swirling around in my brain since seeing it again, for the first time in awhile. I'm no good at waxing philosophic about things like that here, but I must say it's put my own life in perspective, where things have come my way and I either let them slide or hung onto it. I could appear to be talking out my ass on this one, but I felt it was worth sharing here.

I wonder if Cuaron had seen Possession.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original 5.1 DTS-HD master audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New audio commentary by author and critic Bryan Reesman
• There is No Future, a new video appreciation by film historian Philip Kemp
• Fertility & Progeny, a new video essay by author and critic Kat Ellinger
• The Possibility of Hope, an archival documentary featuring interviews with activist Naomi Klein, philosopher Slavoj Žižek and others, exploring the film’s resonance with contemporary current affairs
• Comments by Slavoj Žižek, an archival featurette on the film’s themes
• Creating the Baby, an archival featurette on the film’s visual effects
• Futuristic Design, an archival featurette on the film’s sets
• Theo & Julian, an archival featurette on Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and their characters
• Under Attack, an archival featurette on the film’s ground-breaking camerawork
• Deleted scenes
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Cunliffe and Amy Simmons