Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN

This was a wild movie about two young men Julio and Tenoch and their experience with Ana. In the beginning is shows Julio getting one last chance with his girlfriend before her and her friend leave to go explore Spain. They are promising not to cheat on each other with other people. After the girls leave they set off to go and be wild young men right after graduating high school. They smoke pot and masturbate like there is no tomorrow. They also come from different sides of the track. Tenoch comes from a very wealthy family and Julio comes from a lower class.

One day at a party they come to meet up with a woman named Ana. This is Tenoch's cousins wife. They did not know this in the beginning and they were hitting on her with no luck. They tell her about this place called Heavens Mouth and how beautiful it is and that they are going there and ask her to come along. Ana declines the offer and they find out that she is married to Tenoch's cousin. Much to their disbelief Ana calls Tenoch one day and wants to go to Heavens Mouth with them, this is after her husband calls her and tells her that he slept with another woman. Ana had also gone to the doctor for some reason that we did not find out why but she is very sad. The three set off on their journey and what a journey it was. They explore all of what life is about. During their journey Ana asks them about their girlfriends and their bond with each other. On the trip Tenoch sleeps with Ana and does not last very long and this makes Ana laugh. Then Julio sees this and tell Tenoch that he slept with his girlfriend, he is very angry. Ana senses a tension between the two young men and make it right b jumping on top of Julio and making love to him, Tenoch does not understand this and is angry. The two men start fighting and this infuriates Ana, she gets out of the car and she screams at them and starts walking off. They go after her and she tells them that they are going to play be her rules and that is it. After they reach Heavens Mouth they finally relax and have fun Later on after the pigs destroyed their camp they end up at this bar and drink to much Tequila and in this little room they start exploring thing that they probably never expected. Ana starts kissing Tenoch and then starts kissing Julio and then starts fondling both and then the tow men kiss and this is where the show stops. After seeing this I read about this movie and find out that Ana dies a month after they get back home and the guys no longer speak.

In all societies teenagers have a hard time in life, they have terrible peer pressure and kids can be so cruel to one another. Drugs and alcohol are easily accessible and they find kids that have treat them with love and they do anything to get that love. There are a lot of parents out there that have to work and leave their kids alone for to long. This always gets them into trouble. Here in the states there are after school programs and community programs that kids can go to to help them stay out of trouble. Unfortunately there is not enough of them. There will always be kids doing silly stuff and dangerous stuff as long as there are kids.

CAROL'S JOURNEY

This was a great movie even though I had no idea of what they were saying. With no subtitles at times it was easy to figure out what was going on. I looked at what the movie was about and you find out that Carol new her mother was sick in the beginning and with no subtitles it was speculation.

Carol and her mother was on their way to Spain to see her family. Her mother was Spanish and her father was American. They lived in New York, her father was off at war. In the beginning you could see that when the Mother started smoking on the train that it was not right by the way the little boy and the priest looked at her. Carol saw this and the Mother just smiled. Once they get to the train station she meets her Grandpa and they are off in a horse and buggie. On the way Carol sees this boy Tomiche shoot a bird and kill it. Carol screams at him and he takes her hat. He calls her a name. Carol looks and acts like a tomboy. One night Carol sees her mom pay to have a letter sent to her husband and Carol takes note. The next day while Carols mom is out side she sneaks and reads the letter from her dad. This makes her happy. Carol runs out to find her mom dead. Carol goes to live with her Aunt and cousins and also becomes friends with the local boys and Tomiche. They have a crush on each other. One day it is Carols birthday and there is a plane flying over and everyone starts freaking out and Carol starts screaming that is her Dad. He drops a present from the plane for Carol for her birthday. While off playing Carol sees a truck with a lot off men in it and later she hears gun fire. Carols dad comes to see her and the police start looking for him. Carol and Tomiche start looking for him too, Tomiche goes to find him and tries to help him escape. Carol sees all of this and she sees the cops take aim at her dad and she starts screaming and the cop shoot Tomiche. He is dead. At the end it shows Carol and the Grandpa leaving and she is telling everyone good bye. I wondered what happened to the dad in the end. Carol sees allot of different things different from the American culture where she was from. The war, smoking, calling her a Yankee and even death. I would like to see this movie with the subtitles.

VOVLVER

I truly enjoyed this movie. This was a movie about a woman who was very strong in many different situations. In the very beginning of this movie it showed a lot of people mainly women cleaning graves of the deceased. I found this to be very bizarre and I would also say that it was also on the superstitious side. After the grave site they- Raimunda, Paula her daughter and Sole her sister went to see their Aunt Paula. You can see in the beginning that Aunt Paula was not fond of Sole. Aunt Paula did not get around so well and was very shaky. Raimunda wanted to take her home with her one day but she has no room. Raimunda questioned Aunt Paula on how she survives and she says she does okay. Once they go home Paula the daughter sits down and her father looks at her in a seductive way and it was very gross. I found that very disturbing. One night Paula is waiting for Raimunda at the bus stop and she tells her something happened. Once they get home she sees Paco on the floor dead. Paco tried to rape Paula and she stabbed him to death. Raimunda cleans up the mess and tells Paula that she did not kill him that she did. Paula also asked about whether Paco was her father and he was not. They hid his body in a freezer at a restaurant and while she was there one day a man came and asked if she could fix lunch for his crew while they were filming a movie. Raimunda went and got some vegetables and on the way she asked a friend for some pork that she got and from another friend she got sausage from her and she would pay them back the next day. This went on for a while. Then one day Aunt Paula died and Sole went to the funeral and Raimunda did not want to go. When Sole was at Aunt Paulas house she saw her mothers ghost and it scared her. After the funeral she went home and someone was knockning inside her trunk. The voice screamed that it was her mother. Sole opened the trunk and it was her. Sole still believes that she is still a ghost who brings luggage. Irene the mother is living with Sole and then Paula sees that her grandmother is alive and everytime when Raimunda comes over she hides. In the end Raimunda goes and buries Paco by the river and finda out that her mother is alive. Raimunda never had a good relationship with her mother and she finda out why. Her mother tells her that she was sorry that Raimunda's father raped her and that is how Paula came about and that her father had been having an affair with Augetsines mother. Irene went and set fire to this house they were in at one of the times they were together and killed them, she never got caught. Everyone assumed that it was Irene that was dead and Augestines mother just vanished. So in order not to get caught she kept hidden and stayed with Aunt Paula and everyone thought that it was a ghost.

This movie was a great tribute to the strength of women and of what women have to go through and still survive. The other superstitious part of the movie that I noticed was about people talking of the East wind making people crazy. That does not happen or we all would be in big trouble.

Guantanamera

Thanks to Netflix, I was able to watch this movie on my own.

There was a lot of culture in this film, both Hispanic and Cuban. The machismo men were Adolfo, Gina's husband, and Mariano, Gina's former student and admirer. Adolfo was a gross little dictator who beat his wife, forced her to dress how he liked and didn't have any feelings for anyone except himself. Mariano was good-looking, and had a girl in every port, even leaving one when she claimed to be pregnant with his baby.

Gina was a submissive wife until the end, when she finally got up the nerve, thanks to her aunt's lover's help. I loved when she finally bought the dress that she knew Adolfo would hate, just to look pretty for Mariano.

Some of the things that characterized Cuban culture were the gasoline and food rationing (the scene with the riot at the funeral over sandwiches was sad but a little funny), the tropical food (bananas and rum and coffee) and the music ("Guantanamera" is known as Cuba's national song, according to Wikipedia). Also, the legend of Olofin and Iku seemed to be a Cuban legend.

THE OFFICIAL STORY

I really enjoyed this film even though is was a little slow at times. This is a movie set in Argentina in the 1970's. It has three main characters, Alicia the mother, Gabby the daughter and Robert the father.

Alicia is a teacher, a wife to a wealthy business man who is involved with the Government and a mother to a beautiful 5 year old little girl-Gabby. In the beginning it has Alicia teaching the history of Argentina to a room full of young men. Alicia appears to have her head in the sand with the current history that was being made at the time. It was'nt until her school friend Anna came to town and ended up telling her that years ago she had been kidnapped and tortoured and while she was there Anna had learned of women that were pregnant and their babies were taken and sold. After hearing this it sparked Alicia's curiosity of where Gabby came from. Alicia had mentioned it to Robert and he blew her off. So Alicia started some investigating on her own. The people that were protesting in the street had family members that had been kidnapped and never returned and among those were preganat women. Alicia was at a hospital where Gabby was supposed to have been born and got no information. While she was there she ran in to this woman and they started talking about missing babies. This woman took her to this office and she was looking through some pictures of children that were adopted or missing.

One morning while dropping Gabby off at school there three women watching her. This left her very uncomfortable. Later on, this one particular woman aske Alicia to have coffee wth her and she started talking about her son and daughter in-law being married and abducted. The daughter was pregnant at the time. Gabby had been born around the same time her grandaughter should have been born and there was a picture of the daughter in-law when she was little and it looked alot like Gabby. Alicia got very emotional and started tearing up. Alicia had taken the grandmother to meet Robert and he got very angry and yelled at the woman. The woman left and then Robert and Alicia were talking and he asked where Gabby was and Alicia said she was gone, Robert freaked out and started banging Alicia's head against the wall and smashed her fingers in the door. The phone rang and it was Gabby, she was at her granma's and grandpa's house. Gabby started singing on the phone and then Alicia left.

There is always hope in whatever is going on in life. With the grandmother she finally had hope that maybe her grandaughter was alive. Hope that maybe she might have something to cling to even if it wasnt. I think in the end Robert felt hopeless because he just destroyed his marriage to his wife by being cruel and abusive. As far as Alicia goes I believe she feels her marriage is over and she sets off to go and get Gabby and I would like to think that her and Gabby are happy together no matter what.

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

This was some movie. There were alot of emotions in this one for me. Alot of anger towards the mother for treating her daughter like that. Towards the end she got hers. Anyway lets talk about the movie.

Tita was this little girl who grew up into a beautiful woman that had a mother that hated her. Tita had this boy Pedro that was interested in her and she in him but it was not going to happen that way. Tita being the youngest daughter her duty was to look after her mother Ela till she dies. So when he asked for her hand in marriage she told him that he could have Rosauro instead. He agreed so that he could be close to Tita. While making the batter for the wedding Tita was crying in to the batter because she was missing the love of her life. While at the wedding, everyone who had eaten the food started crying and started missing the loves of their lives, they got up and had to run for the river to vomit-talk about magic realism.

After three months of being married Pedro and Rosauro finally consemated their marriage. Rosauro cooks dinner and Pedro brings roses to Tita for the one year anniversary of being the Ranch cook. Tita makes rose soup out of the roses and this makes everyone very sexual, Gertrudis takes off running to the shower and she starts taking a shower and steam starts pouring out of the shower. Then she takes off running and this rebel comes riding in on a horse picks her up and takes her away.

Tita delivers Rosauro's baby and a Doctor John comes and checks on the mother and the baby, the baby is great and the Rosauro is sick. Tita helps take care of the baby and she breast feeds the baby. Dr.John flirts with Tita and she informs him that she will never be able to marry or have kids since she is the one that has to take care of her mother till she dies. Once the baby is better Ela tells Pedro and Rosauro to move away. Once they are gone there is only Tita to take care of the mother, who is so mean to her. They get news that Roberto the baby died because it would not eat once they moved away. Tita went crazy and started knitting again. Every time Tita was upset she knitted. When Dr.John came to get Tita her blanket that she had knitted was almost 100 ft long. Tita did not speak to anyone and Chencha came and seen her and gave her magic broth. Tita finally spoke and smiled. Tita finally felt like her hands were free of her mother orders and they were like birds that could fly away. Dr.John proposes to Tita and she accepts.

Back at the Ranch there was a gang of men that came raping Chencha and throwing Ela down a
ravine and killing her. Tita comes to the funeral and finds a box of letters that her mother had. Tita sees that her mother loved someone else and that was why she was bitter. Rosauro is pregnant again and has the baby early, Dr.John had to do surgery on her and she will not have any more kids after this one. Rosauro stays and helps with the baby and Dr.John goes back home. Tita and Pedro finally meet and they make love to each other and fireworks are happening. Tita thinks she might be pregnant and she sees a vision of her mother and Ela curses the baby. Tita tells Pedro that she thinks that she is pregnant and he is excited. He wants to leave with her. He gets drunk and statrts singing and catches fire. Dr John comes back and helps take care of him. Tita tells him that she cannot marry him because she slept with Pedro and he does not care, he will marry her anyway.

Twenty four years later Esperenza is getting married, Rosauro had died and Tita did not marry Dr.John. Tita is making chilis with love in her heart and everyone at the wedding who was eating the chilis started getting very sexual and going crazy. Dr.John leaves, the wedding couple leave and finally Pedro and Tita can be together. He carries her to the bed they make love and he dies because all of the matches were lit at once. Tita ate some matches and set fire to herself and the Ranch.


In the end I had hoped they could finally be together. It was very sad to see that she had only a few moments of happiness. It was like it was her destiny to never have love or be happy.

Motorcycle Diaries

I really did like this movie. After reading up on Ernesto before. I knew I was going to like this movie.



In the beginning I felt that his relationship with his family and the faith that they had in him before he left you could tell that they loved each other very much. He was very close to his Mother and at the end when he hugged her good bye you could just see that he loved his mother and she was very improtant to him.

The experience of him being on the motorcycle with his friend Alberto traveling so far and having so many different experiences of crashing and it breaking down helped make who he was. He grew up on the road and became a man.

While on the road running into the couple that lost everything and left their kids behind to go and find work really touched him. After he saw everyone hoping to get work that day and the husband did get work but the men who were head of the mines did not even off water or anything. That really made Ernesto mad and he threw a rock at the truck. It was wonderful to find out in the end that he had given his $15.00 to the couple.

The girlfriend was another who helped make him who he was. Ernesto loved her and she loved him, her parents did not like him at all. When he left and she said she would wait but not forever. Chichin gave him $15.00 for him to buy her panties. No matter what he would not spend that money. After he received the letter from her he changed. He was very angry, hurt and sad. He never would say what was in the letter and I think that was one of the biggest things that changed him.

While on the road he saw so many people that had been treated so terribly and had all of their possesions taken, it made him angry. While they were on the boat going to the island of leppers he would look at the boat that was being pulled behind the nice boat. They were over crowded and had nothing except for cots. Once they got to the island and met the Doctor he saw that the Doctors, Nurses and Nuns were on one island and the sick were on another island. When they went over to the other island and he met all of the people and one in particular he really got to know, Sylivia. Sylvia was not going to have surgery to fix her arm and she was going to lose her arm because of this. He explained to her that his lungs were damaged it did'nt stop him. He is becoming a Doctor. She later had the surgery.

While on the island he helped build their shelters and played games with the sick. When they were celebrating his birthday he wanted to spend the last night on the island with the leppers, so he swam across the river. Something no one had ever done and he made it.

When they were leaving the island Alberto decided that he was going to stay and finish school and not finish the trip. It was eight years later when they saw each other again.

Along the trip there were many times that he had the chance to be a Doctor and to help people. That was his first passion. In the end he just found a different way to help people.