Y Tu Mama, Tambien

Hey! Yo! I gotchya previews right hea! LUCKY BREAK–From the director of The Full Monty comes yet another movie about a group of friends doing something that they normally wouldn’t do because they’re desperate. This time, though, it’s a bunch of prisoners who are in a musical because that’s what their warden loves. And they’re using it to get out.

This guy hasn’t done a movie since 1997 and he follows that huge hit up with more of the same. Well, at least he’s working with Olivia Williams, who is on my British hottie list. Maybe it’s a renter.

MEN IN BLACK II–Speaking of more of the same. The problem here is that it doesn’t look nearly as funny as the first one. That one was big, loud, kinda dumb, but a lot of fun. This one just looks big and loud. You would think that it would be fun to see Tommy Lee Jones not understand what the hell’s going on around him, but it just kinda makes him look dumb.

I’ll see it, but I don’t have very high expectations.

LIKE MIKE–I’m cheating a bit because this was actually on Star Wars, but I forgot about it. Sorry.

That precious L’il Bow Wow stars in his own cute little movie about a boy who has no talent at basketball until he gets a pair of shoes that have Mike’s name on them. Then, suddenly, he’s pulling amazing antics at professional basketball games.

What the fuck are these people thinking? (I hope you heard the sarcasm in that last paragraph. I was laying it on pretty thick.) Just because a kid has a hit record and a famous uncle does NOT mean he has any real talent. So, of course, give him a movie deal. This is going to be Like Shit.

And now for a movie that I should have seen at South By Southwest, but I knew it was going to get released, so I saw something that I don’t remember instead. I had heard a lot of people say that this and ZigZag were the best movies they saw at the festival. Luckily, I finally got to see this one. Don’t know about ZigZag. It’s got Wesley Snipes backing it, so hopefully I’ll get a chance at that one, too.

This one is about a couple of high school buddies, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal from Amores Perros, another film I missed at last year’s SXSW) and Tenoch (Diego Luna from Before Night Falls and the upcoming Frida and John Carpenter’s sequel to Vampires), whose girlfriends are leaving for a few weeks after graduation. So what are a couple of affluent Mexican kids to do?

Road trip!!

Well, that wasn’t the original plan. They had actually planned to just kind of kick around town and try to get laid. Instead, they meet Tenoch’s cousin (by marriage–that’s very important), Luisa (Maribel Verdu). She’s an older woman whose husband has just cheated on her. It’s time for her to make some changes in her life and these two boys look like they could help.

The three of them take off for a beach called Heaven’s Mouth. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist. The guys just made it up to get this hot, older chick to hang out with them for a week or so.

The rest of the movie is basically the three of them learning about themselves, sex, the outside world, women, men, sex, politics and sex.

Did I happen to mention sex? The movie starts off with Tenoch and his girlfriend banging away at each other in her bedroom. We’re talking everything but actual penetration is showing. In other words, this is not an art film for your grandmother. This is a foreign movie about kids and how they actually are. There’s a lot of nudity and sex in the later years of high school and college and there’s a whole lot of it in this movie. But it’s never exploitive like it is in some of Larry Clark’s movies. It’s just real. BUT I was a little tired of seeing the guys’ dicks. I know, you don’t get a lot of dick in the movies these days (especially since Ewan McGregor has put his up), but did it all have to be in one movie?

The sex scenes were great (grand total of FIVE!), but I was a little uncomfortable sitting in a theatre full of old people. Just a little weird for me. (And when I say full, I mean there were about 10 of us there. The weekend that a Star Wars movie opens is the best time to go see other movies…but go see Attack Of The Clones first. It’s awesome!)

But that’s not all it’s about. These guys are best friends. They know everything about each other. (And when I say everything, I mean everything–”Mine is only 5mm shorter than yours!”) They’re always together. They’re the kings of their own worlds. (The fact that the two actors are actually best friends since, like, the 2nd grade, doesn’t hurt the performances at all.) Unfortunately, they find out that there are some things that they don’t know about each other.

And the same thing goes for Luisa. There are things that she doesn’t know about herself that the boys get out of her. Things that she’s actually dying to get off her chest. (And, no, I don’t just mean her bra.)

There’s a lot of political stuff going on here, too. The three travelers are from the upper crust part of Mexico and when they are trying to find this beach they’re going through some poor parts that they’ve never seen before. Even if they don’t necessarily notice it all the director/writer (Alfonso Cuaron who also did Great Expectations and A Little Princess) makes sure that we notice it. All sound will stop while a narrator tells us the story of what’s going on outside the windows of Julio’s car. This makes the whole thing almost a documentary about the state of Mexico just before the ruling class lost power.

This is a great film that everyone should see. It makes a lot of important points about how we all see our lives and the lives of others. The running commentary about the people outside of the three main character’s lives goes right along with the troubles that our heroes are having between themselves.

Of course, if you’re offended by male and female nudity and two high school boys kissing each other, then you might want to skip it. (Yeah, they did that. A bit shudder inducing.)