This Spanish-language film is one of the most
intelligent, funny, honest-to-real-life, and just plain beautiful
movies made about sexually charged teenagers I've seen. Despite
the title (which translates to: And Your Mother Too)
don't expect cheap laughs: you won't find any stick-your-dick-in-the-blueberry-pie
jokes here. And guess what, you will actually have to read the
subtitles to enjoy this little gem completely (although sometimes
you just want to take your eyes off those words and look at
the Mexican scenery (or a naked body)).
The story is simple enough, and I'm not going to ruin it by
going too deeply into it: basically, two teenage boys (best
friends) try to seduce an older woman. They ask her to go to
this "secret" beach with them, and when she (surprisingly) accepts,
they go on a life-changing road trip.
What really makes the movie is the character development, the
dynamics between them, the dialogue, and the story. It's all
written so well and so believably that I found myself sucked
in (I totally lost track of time!). The two boys grow through
the movie and you end up really caring about them by the end.
On top of all that, it's a beautiful movie to just look at.
The acting is superb as well. I don't really want to say anything
else about the movie because it just unfolds so well that I
don't want to ruin that experience for you by telling you about
specific things I liked.
This doesn't mean the movie doesn't have flaws. An omniscient
voiceover came on every once in a while, and it was more than
a little annoying, especially since it comes in during some
scenes where I would have liked to just look at the screen rather
than read subtitles. A lot of what's said in the voiceovers
could've been cut with no great detriment to the movie. And
whenever the voiceovers came on, the background sound gets soft
as if somebody turned down the knob. It didn't bother me until
it kept happening over and over again.
But those are small technical complaints to have for an otherwise
excellent story told in a most personally affecting way. I could
really relate to this movie, and I recommend it to anybody not
looking for a cheap laugh and shallow characters.
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