Ladymol's Review

Interesting. This film has masses of critical appreciation: brilliant, sexiest film of the year, hysterically funny. I wouldn’t entirely actually agree with any of those descriptions, but I do recommend that you see this film; it definitely grows on you.

Julio (the gorgeous Gabriel Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch are teenage boys in Mexico city with too much money and too much time on their hands. Their preoccupations are having sex with their girlfriends and taking drugs/getting drunk.

At a wedding, they meet Luisa, an older married woman who for reasons of her own persuades the teenagers to take her on a long trip to the coast.

The boys agree (for obvious reasons) and soon the three of them are bonding on the road trip. I didn’t find it at all sexy in the places I suspect I was meant to—Luisa with the boys (which is actually rather worrying? Too much slash? Is that possible?)

So, why am I recommending it? Throughout the film there are homoerotic hints about the boys. We’ve seen this in many films where it never really comes to fruition (My Private Idaho comes to mind).

In this film it does, albeit in a tiny but utterly memorable scene.

I swear the whole film is worth the minute or so that follows one drunken night in a Mexican bar.

Wonderful scenery throughout, great cinematography (the beach scenes will take your breath away) and that one minute scene make this one to see.

Cerisaye's Review

A Mexican movie that is funny, moving and sexy, one of the best I’ve seen.

Julio & Tenoch have just finished high school.  They come from very different backgrounds but they are friends from childhood.  They brag about all the girls they’ve had but we see the truth, bad sex. 

Gabriel Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are incredible, so natural with such amazing chemistry you forget quickly it's a movie you're watching not real life. Their characters are forces of nature, with rampaging adolescent hormones and a real lust for life...as well as the beautiful older woman Luisa who, for reasons of her own, agrees to accompany them on a trip to a secret beach paradise.

It's the perfect road movie, all three characters on a journey. Rarely have I seen such an honest portrayal of sex onscreen, but, though it's quite explicit, that's not what the movie is about, rather a deeper and longer-lasting connection between people.

Julio & Tenoch embark on a summer of fun & sex while their girlfriends are away, but what they get is altogether more rewarding, i.e. they find out who they are and grow up, boys to men, meanwhile Luisa finds her own freedom from an unhappy marriage.

Throughout the film the boys bandy about derogatory words for gay and play up their skills with women, but truth is they get more passionate with each other than they ever do with either their girlfriends or Luisa.  There’s an amazing poolside sequence where the two masturbate together, and a beautiful sensuous scene- the only really erotic moment in the whole film- when wise Luisa manoeuvres them into bed for a three-way and the boys kiss, leaving no doubt about their feelings.

At journey's end each character must make his/own choice what to do about what they've learned. Tenoch is going to university while Julio will attend community college; they’ve reached the age when differences begin to matter and friends drift apart unless they hold to ties that bind.  Will they both find courage to acknowledge the nature of their friendship or will the revelation tear them apart forever? 

A narrative voice adds substance and subtle political commentary is documented by the camera: the opulent lifestyle of privileged urban elite like Tenoch’s family contrasted with scenes of rural poverty and oppression. 

An entertaining and intelligent movie, this is one to buy and keep.