SPANISH FLY

Alfonso Cuaron's Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN is a dazzling, hilarious, and extremely sexy coming of age tale of two friends who journey through the Mexican heartland with a beautiful older woman in tow who will teach them a few private lessons about life, friendship, pleasure and sex. This sizzling import is also very moving--a male adolescent fantasy with enough heart to match its libido--and easily one of the best films of last year.

Pic's opening shot of Tenoch (Diego Luna) in primal sexual congress with his girlfriend instantly sets up one of film's principal preoccupations (And running jokes--as sexed up as main characters are, their trysts are amusingly brief and sloppy). Tenoch and Julio (AMORRES PERROS star Gael Garcia Bernal) are best mates and young, vivacious men of la mancha who live their lives according to a happy, horny creed (Which among other things includes "Get high once a day" and "Whacking off rules!"). As fate would have it, the dynamic duo become acquainted with the beautiful, mature Luisa (Maribel Verdu) while their girlfriends spend the summer in Europe. When Luisa's husband admits to an infidelity, she accepts an invitation from our heroes to vacation in a remote and "fictional" beach. Thus pic evolves into a joyous magical mystery tour through the vast, Mexican hinterland as the lively Tenoch and Julio adopt Luisa as one of their own and desperately attempt to score at the same time. Pic concludes with sensual menage a trois and Tenoch and Julio striking a deeper, more resonant friendship before bittersweet coda.

Acting from principals is superb. As Tenoch and Julio, Luna and Garcia Bernal give riveting, star making performances. The intense and seemingly spontaneous chemistry between the likeable pair goes a long way in establishing the vulnerable interiors beneath their vibrant, party boy facades. Unlike sophomoric gross-out American teen comedies, one of the delights of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN is the emphasis on a sincere and intimate friendship. The classic rapport between Luna and Garcia Bernal (Captured to sublime, uproarious effect in an uncut, five minute drunken revelry on their final night on the beach) is one for the film archives. As Luisa, Verdu is likewise sensational as a heartbroken wife with secret, deeper motives who is unhinged by the unabashed freedom her horny companions provide, and lends film a penetrating emotional balance.

Script by Alfonso and Carlos Cuaron is absolutely perfect. At turns hilarious, raunchy, and unexpectedly moving, film is never short on entertainment as it delves deeper into the trio's journey and, in earnest, themselves. Voice over narration, while initially irritating, comes to dispense several revealing quirks about the characters and their story. Alfonso Cuaron's Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN is a welcome burst of cinematic energy and freshness that is as explicit sexually as it ultimately is about the unspoken rhetoric of friendship, loyalty, life and love.