Yes and Other Answers

Alfonso Cuarón’s “Y Tu Mama Tambien” as an example of Reconstructivist Art

Cuarón’s movie broke records in Mexico, and was a worldwide hit, despite its racy and subversive material.

Reconstructivist Elements:

1. Nod to Artifice: The realism of the movie is broken periodically by weighty voice-overs which break into both the plot and the soundtrack.
2. Classic Structure: The movie at first glance promises a bundle of clichés, in that the premise features three shop-worn genres in one: The buddy-comedy, the road-trip movie and the sex-farce.
3. Transcontextual and Iconic Elements: The movie borrows some familiar props from the movies it deconstructs: the “Battered Car” that barely runs, the seductive “Older Woman”, the “Fantasy Beach” that magically appears in reality. In addition to these, there is also a second, more disturbing and less familiar set of icons that barely impinge on the consciousness of the characters: the “Intersection Where Someone Was Run Over”, the “Village Wedding”, the “Fisherman Who Will Be Forced Into the Tourist Industry”.
4. Moments of Genuine Emotion or Significance: What gives the movie its depth is how its seeming stereotypes reveal a core of messy reality that cannot be denied or ignored. The seductress’s secrets are revealed as decidedly unsexy –teenage heartbreak, a chronically unfaithful husband and a fatal disease. The two buddies unexpectedly confront the homoeroticism hidden beneath the surface of their friendship. Even the paradise-like beach turns out to have a dark fate of its own, as a sacrifice to economic exploitation. At the end, the fizzy joy of the movie’s early scenes gives way to hard emotional realities: People die, and friendships end.