This week’s “Movies” topic on The Chris Vernon Show was “Two Guys and a Girl” — films featuring a trio protagonists fitting that gender make-up — based on current box-office champ Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince.
The heavy contingent of foreign and/or old movies at the top of the list didn’t seem to please radio listeners, but I stand by it:
1. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001): Alfonso Cuaron’s coming-of-age story/women’s picture/subtly political Mexican road movie might be the best film of the past decade. Two teen best friends, the privileged Tenoch (Diego Luna) and the middle-class Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) take Luisa (Maribel Verdu), the foxy adult wife of Tenoch’s cousin, with them on a road trip to find the Heaven’s Mouth beach, which may or may not exist. Cuaron is generous to his teen protagonists while simultaneously exposing how limited and self-absorbed their view of the world is. Shot-by-shot, scene-be-scene, moment-by-moment, it’s brilliant.