Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Cast
Maribel Verdú,
Gael García Bernal,
Diego Luna,
Diana Bracho,
Verónica Langer,
María Aura
Genre
Drama,
Romance
In this coming-of-age drama, best friends Julio and Tenoch embark on a cross-country road trip with a beautiful older woman. Along the way, they learn a thing or two about life, friends, and sex. Alfonso Cuarón uses the documentary-realist style to explore what "growing up" means — and costs.
I would say that this is probably one of my favorite films of all time, if not my favorite. The cinematography is stunning, and the acting is some of the best I’ve seen. Cuarón’s organic process of filmmaking allows him to construct complex characters who are shaped by both personal and national identity. In doing so, he gives his viewer a realistic lens into a moment of sociopolitical tension in Mexican history.
When I first watched this movie in high school, my only takeaway was a lifelong crush on actor Gael Garcia Bernal. I recently re-watched this film again recently, and realized how stunningly beautiful and realistic this film is. It really captures the nature of the kind of relationship you can only have when your young; where your so incredibly close but also petty and yeah, really stupid. The movie is funny, and definitely deserves its sexy reputation, but its also incredibly thoughtful and heartbreaking. Also, my boy Gael Garcia Bernal is - and always will be - a snack.
Watching this feels like slipping underwater; it's lulling, memorizing, and funny, and then you reach the end and realize it's broken your heart just a bit.
USA Today by Claudia Puig
Can be taken on many levels, and that's why it works so completely.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
That rare thing, a Hollywood teen flick transfigured into something like pubescent scripture: In the beginning, there was lust; in the end, there is knowledge.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Echoes the unmistakable freshness and excitement of the Nouvelle Vague, the sense of joy in being alive and making movies, that made those works distinctive and unforgettable.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
One of those movies where "after that summer, nothing would ever be the same again." Yes, but it redefines "nothing."
Chicago Tribune by Mark Caro
Raunchy, smart, ebullient, melancholy, insightful, surprising, funny, frank and sexy as all get-out.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Cuaron's hot-blooded, haunting and wildly erotic film revels in the pleasures of the flesh without losing touch with thought and feeling.
Washington Post by Ann Hornaday
Part travelogue, part road picture, part meditation on class, mortality and intimacy, this extraordinary little movie might be the perfect harbinger of summer, as astute as it is steamy.
San Francisco Chronicle by Carla Meyer
Frank, funny and true as "Ghost World."
Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow
A great, lusty movie in the tradition of Bertrand Blier's "Going Places."
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
The funniest and most emotionally charged erotic road movie since Bertrand Blier's "Going Places."
Newsweek by David Ansen
The eroticism in Cuaron’s road movie (which broke all box-office records in Mexico) is the real deal: tactile, sexy, psychologically charged.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
Like watching an American teen-sex comedy through a glass darkly.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
"You're so lucky to live in Mexico," Luisa says. "Look at it -- it breathes with life." So does Y Tu Mama Tambien, both the pant of passion and shuddering sigh of regret.
Time by Richard Corliss
If this sounds like an old-fashioned sex comedy, it is -- sexy, for sure, and funny, in wild spurts.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
There is plenty to inflame in this picture and nothing to corrupt. [18 Mar 2002. p.152]
The New Yorker
There is plenty to inflame in this picture and nothing to corrupt. [18 Mar 2002. p.152]
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