The writing and dialogue are something else. The scenes (including the sex scenes) have an air of innocence and humor. There are glimpses of socio-political commentary. Actually, more than just glimpses. Best line: “Play with babies, and you end up washing diapers!”
So, what did you all think?
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Good coming of age/road trip story, and yes, a socio-political statement as well. (The obnoxious cousin, the Spanish guy, has the last name Cortez, that of the explorer who conquered Mexico for Spain, and Julio’s last name was Zapata, the revolutionary.)
I don’t know anything about film-making, but it just seemed to me that this movie was put together so perfectly. Gorgeous cinematography: loved the leaf-filled pool scene. There was not one false-sounding line in the dialogue, acting was superb, and I especially enjoyed the occasional narration, it sort of pulled everything together for me.
I liked this movie a whole lot.
The guy I saw it with had pizza afterward, and realized that there are layers and layers of metaphorical meaning lurking just below the surface. (Hints: The rich kid has an Aztec name; the woman the two boys lust after is from Spain.)
It only seems like a generic teen-sex-comedy road movie. Easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Wow, that sentence makes no sense at all. I meant to say, “The guy who saw it with me and I had pizza afterward…”
Word, Caprese, the naturally-sounding dialogue was the really great part of this movie. This was major character-driven filmmaking, the story just flowed and there were no boring spots.
Foreign Language Oscar in '03?
Did I mention that the sex scenes were hilarious? Them, and the squabbling between Tenoch and Julio.
Soft-core and great writing, together at last! Porn is so BORING, I never rent it.
If I was married to Monica Verdu, no way I would ever cheat on her.
It’s Maribel Verdu, she was my desktop wallpaper for a week or so.
It’s kinda disconcerting to see movies come out with the ‘older woman’ played by someone only a couple of years older than yourself…part of getting old I guess.
WHERE??? What URL??? Where??? Standard celeb shots, or shots from the gulp MOVIE???
Heh heh, I’m almost ten years older than this “older” woman.
It’s about time somebody put in a good word for Mrs. Robinson, she was a hottie too, back in the day.
I enjoyed it very much, except for the narration which I found very annoying. Especially the way the sound would go away completely about a second before the narration would start.
The first time it happened I was certain the sound system in the theater had gone down and the gap was long enough that I was wondering how long I should wait before notifying a manager. But the content of the narration wasn’t much to shake a stick at, either.
Also, I figured out the big surprise at the earliest possible moment so it wasn’t much of a surprise (my wife was surprised, though).
Was the ‘big surprise’ really supposed to be a surprise?
It seemed to be in the theater where I saw it. And the movie left it intentionally ambiguous until then (for a while I thought it might be something else, but was pretty sure all the way).
The narration seemed to be integral to the milieu of the storytelling.
What surprise?
SPOILER…
…that she had cancer, or that the boys had gay sex?
The narration seemed to be integral to the milieu of the storytelling.
What surprise?
SPOILER…
…that she had cancer, or that the boys had gay sex?
The former.
And the narration may have been integral (at least those related to the story; there were many socio-political bits that weren’t necessary), but they didn’t need to be integral. The filmmaker could have found a way to convey it without narration.
As it was, every time the narration started, it pulled me off the story and my mind jumped the rails. A small nitpick about an otherwise wonderful movie, though.
Actually, I really appreciated the socio-political bits. I really liked the part about the worker who was killed when he tried to cross the highway, and the scandal of Tenoch’s father distributing tainted food to the poor, and the fate of Chuy the fisherman. These “bits” were more than just providing context; they were integral to what made this a Mexican movie and not just a sex movie, as per my OP.
Here’s an incredibly astute examination of the movie from another board, with an excellent look at how the events parallel political issues going on in Mexico at the time. He also articulates better than I could, obfusciatrist, the origins of the narration–a device that dates back to the French New Wave and one that is, I think, supposed to bring you out of one movie (the road trip) and into a larger one (the socio-political world that the characters live in but are largely oblivious of). Saw it yesterday–terrific film, easiest the best I’ve seen this year in general release.