Let’s Talk About SEX!
S is for substantial – no porn
E is for experimental, explorative and hopefully entertaining
X is for [insert sexual fantasy or taboo]
Sex sells and not just in a literal way. A movie can draw you in right from the start by shocking you as soon and hard as possible with its sexual content. Y Tu Mama Tambien is a movie that does that perfectly. Possibly inspired by the French film Betty Bleu, the movie opens up with an explicit, extended sex scene between one of its main characters Tenoch (Diego Luna) and his girlfriend. While this scene could make you feel uncomfortable to an extent – it is, after all, an unsettling departure from the glossy Hollywood sex scenes we are used to – it also sparks your interest in this movie right away. Shortly after the initial scene, the film’s second protagonist Julio Zapata (Gael Garcia Bernal) has a very brief yet absolutely awkward and comedic sex scene with his girlfriend. The tone is set for what has to be one of the most interesting South American films I have seen.
Tenoch and Julio are two bored Mexican teenage boys whose girlfriends have left on a trip to Europe for the summer holidays. Naturally, the boys are pretty much obsessed with sex and think about little else. When they meet Tenoch’s cousin’s wife Luisa (Maribel Verdú), they are immediately attracted to her. Jokingly, they invite her on a spontaneous road trip to a fictional beach they call “Heaven’s Mouth”. When Luisa finds out that her husband has been cheating on her, she seeks out Tenoch and Julio and they embark on a journey to a place that doesn’t even exist. On the road, a sort of tension forms between the three of them and madness ensues.
I had suspected it but never found a proof as convincing as Y Tu Mama Tambien: South Americans have a vastly different relationship to sex than Americans (and to some extent, Europeans). As weird as it sounds, it seems to be a much more casual yet also more passionate deal to them, than it is to us. It is more casual in the sense that it’s more accepted to ‘sleep around’, to have sexual relations with strangers or people that are much older or younger than you and to have lots of sex and enjoy it. At least that is what I’ve determined from the South American films I have seen so far. At the same time, sex scenes from South American films are pretty. damn. hot.
In the case of Y Tu Mama Tambien, its inclusion and exploration of a couple of tabus might make it more interesting and thus more arousing than other films: the male protagonists are teenagers or young adults, while the female protagonist is about 10 years older. Furthermore, the film plays with the idea of polygamy and threesomes. However, I don’t think that this is the main cause of its eroticism and sexiness. Instead, it is the absolute passion of its characters that makes it so erotic, the fact that they say and show what they want and that they just go for it. And the fact that there is an actual, interesting story and screenplay behind the hot sex makes it even more effective.
Y Tu Mama Tambien is an odd mixture of social commentary, an attempt at breaking some sexual boundaries and a reminder of how short life is and that we should enjoy every second and do whatever we want to do. It is a gorgeous, entertaining, humorous film that everyone should try to seek out. But do watch it by yourself. Or at least not with your mom.
