not for your mother and your next movie to buy too

Y tu mama tambien (and your mother too)

It's about two teenage boys and an impulsive journey with an older woman that involves sexual discoveries. But it is also about the two Mexicos. And it is about the fragility of life and the finality of death.

The movie, whose title translates as "And Your Mother Too," comes as the next instalment of the rejuvenation (internationally) of the Mexican film industry. Like "Amores Perros," which also stars Gael Garcia Bernal, it is about interlocking stories, and how they mingle to give the big picture. These interlock in what is said and unsaid, and the parallel worlds of wealth and poverty in Mexico.

Two Mexican teenagers named Tenoch and Julio, one from a rich family, one middle class, are free for the summer when their girlfriends go to Europe. At the beginning you just try and get a feel for who is who, as this film develops we realise that Tenoch and Julio are almost inseparable in what they do.

At a wedding they meet Luisa, older and wiser, the wife of a cousin of Tenoch; she's sexy and playful. They suggest a weekend trip to the legendary possible mythical beach named Heaven's Mouth. When her husband cheats on her, she unexpectedly agrees, and they set out together on a lark. It’s all sounding very cliché and already been there with so many films before, but then the film really begins to come into it’s own.

Luisa jokes with them about their sex lives’ in a light-hearted but unrelenting way, until they have few secrets left, and at the same time she teases them with erotic possibilities. She tries to share with them an enlightened wiser view of sex, that women are not prizes, conquests or targets, but the other half of a precarious unity, and to divert them away from their preoccupation with their own orgasms.

The underlying hidden stories are what complete this film and is made up by what they pass on their trip, that fade into the background but leave a lasting impression such as police checkpoints, drug busts and traffic accidents, shanty towns.

At times during this journey the soundtrack goes silent and we hear a narrator who comments from outside the action, pointing out the village where Tenoch's nanny was born and left at 13 to seek work. This can be disorientating but is effective in producing a reminder of Mexico’s history and the importance of what goes unsaid.

They arrive at the beach. They are greeted by a fisherman and his family, who have lived here for four generations, sell them fried fish, rent them a place to stay. This is an unspoiled paradise. (The narrator informs us the beach will be purchased for a tourist hotel, and the fisherman will abandon his way of life, go to the city in search of a job and finally come back here to work as a janitor.) This is where all the sexual tension comes to a climax.

There is an another dimension to this film, that will become clear at the end. There is at least one occasion in the film that I know of that could really give this away. I think it’s best I do not divulge any information about this, but it’s something that will leave a lasting impression and make this a film to watch more than once.

The drive behind this film is Maribel Verdu's performance as Luisa, the sexy older woman but she has more depth than the standard. She’s the one who quizzes, questions and teases information out of the young boys. She is the catalyst for self-discovery that makes the duo confront their innermost demons and desires.

To sum it up, a film about a summer of self-discovery, after which nothing will be the same again but yet it redefines nothing.