10 Flawed Elements In Otherwise Flawless Films

Alfonso Cuarón's coming-of-age road movie Y tu mamá también is an iconic piece of turn-of-the-millennium international cinema, exploring themes of class, sexuality, masculinity, love and death, all wrapped up in an eminently watchable road movie. 

At a loss for what to do with their summers, 17-year-olds Julio and Tenoch follow their hormones into a cross-country adventure in the company of Luisa, an older woman who is done with suffering a cheating partner and has nothing left to lose. It's a timeless drama that makes the most of a talented cast (including future prince of Mexican cinema Gael García Bernal), a tight script, and Cuarón's intimate style, long shots, and subtle innovations.

But the final minutes of the movie drive a coach and horses through everything it has built up to. Primarily - and nigh-criminally - delivered via summary narration, and then one final, awkward capping scene ending on yet more narration, the movie spoils the promise of new frontiers for the two young men. They have experienced new sexual and social boundaries, come of age, and grown as men and as people, and yet the final sequence kills Luisa offscreen and turns their relationship from a maybe into a never again.