Transnational Cinema and the Mexican State in Alfonso Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien

Our analysis of Y tu mama también foregrounds contemporary tendencies of transnational cinematic production, the history of film production in Mexico, and the recent political and economic transformations of the Mexican nation-state. We demonstrate how Cuarón's film share certain cinematic traits, such as an emphasis on contingency and coincidence, with other successful international co-productions and how it responds specifically to national concerns. Our analysis of the film's production context also addresses the history of the state support for cinema in Mexico. In our interpretation of the film's form and content, we focus on its use of a disembodied male voice-over as well as its portrayal of gender roles and homosexuality. We argue that the film ultimately reinforces a conventional, oppressive representation of Mexican society, foreclosing upon its potentially progressive narrative trajectories. Though Cuarón's film is definitely a product of globalized era of film production, it exhibits we conclude, a marked nostalgia for a more properly national framework for defining Mexico.