what i think about their relationship

OP, you brought up some really interesting points..

"I don't think either of them are gay, they clearly adore women."

I agree..ok maybe they aren't the straightest guys in the world or they wouldn't have kissed, but I think the idea of having intercourse with another guy would gross them out.

"His rage seems to be jealousy.."

I think so too. I think the narrator even says that what Julio was feeling wasn't rage. I think it was a double shot of jealousy. He was jealous of Tenoch because he wanted to be having sex with Luisa, and he was jealous of Luisa because..well that's harder to explain. He and Tenoch were best friends, they shared everything together (diving board scene, etc.), and I think when he saw them have sex maybe it felt like Tenoch was cheating on him...maybe he felt betrayed. Because even though they weren't having sex with each other, there was a connection between them that unified them.

Julio desparately wants to remain close with his best friend, but perhaps he realizes for the first time that it can't last? I really don't think Julio actually desires to have sex with his friend. But maybe on the deepest level, he feels broken up because a relative stranger can come along and have this level of intimacy with Tenoch that the two of them will never be able to share, despite their closeness? Things can't be any different for the precise reason that they both are straight. I'm sure in most best friends these feelings don't exist. But I think that might be what's going on with Julio and Tenoch...if it makes any sense.

Plus add normal feelings of rejection that I think anyone would feel if a girl they like chose someone else instead of them, and also their normal competitiveness with each other ( swimming, comparing sizes, etc.) and that made it worse for poor Julio. And he probably just feels left out!

"they subconciously didn't want each other to be with someone else"

I think this is kind of related to the idea above. I think this is their immaturity..maybe subconciously they didn't want another woman to come along, one who was truly special, because she would limit their time hang out time and become a rival to their best friend-ship. Of course when you grow up your priorities change and your gf/wife easily becomes #1, but they weren't there yet.


"Don't you find it strange that they slept with each others' girlfriends many times"?

I think Julio only slept with Tenoch's girlfriend one time, and Tenoch didn't sleep with Julio's girlfriend at all. I think everything Julio explained to Tenoch in the hotel room was true, except for perhaps the real reason he slept with her. I think his remorse was real though.

Tenoch's story in the car seemed too premeditated and I think both of them were just joking around with those boasts at the end. I definitely could be wrong, because Tenoch does make the "milk brothers" comment. I do think that's the reason Julio slept with Tenoch's girlfriend..well #1 he was horny but #2 I think he did get turned on knowing that he was "stirring his friend's vanilla", lol or whatever they said.

I don't know how realistic it is for someone to have sex for that reason. But it must have been something crazy for him to cross that line, because yeah normally your best friend's girlfriend is, oh, i don't know, off limits! But even though this "milk" and "vanilla" stuff sounds gay, at the end of the day they are having sex with girls and not with each other and not with other dudes. And I don't think that they have any desire for that to change!

The movie raises some fascinating questions though..how close can best friends be? Is it normal for them to do these types of things together? Do best friends in real life go through these same emotions? Without Luisa and the trip, would Tenoch and Julio have remained friends, would they have become maybe even closer, like brothers? Or would the normal wear and tear of college, moving away, etc. doom them anyway like it does for so many friends? Also in their case, the class differences? I don't know, but this movie makes me think!!! Sorry for the long post..

I just finished watching this movie for the first time. They are NOT in love, not in my point of view. Two boys can kiss each other in a threesome if they are very excited, stuff like that happens, trust me, and it have nothing to do with being gay or bisexual, it has all to do with being very very excited.

I think that they never see each other after that coffee because they are both very humiliate and ashame about what happens. Remember after the threesome, one of the boy throw up because he still had some taste of his friend in is mouth (from the kiss). If ur gay or bisexual, you dont want to throw up because of that, heterosexual does.

This was a very simple movie, it would make no sense if the end was complicated as you think, this is not what the director wanted us to think. As of the confession after the race in the water, obv he was upset that she has slept with is friend first, so that was a good time to tell him that, but you dont have to look further, it has nothing to do with being in love with is friend. As of the masturbation, come on..., every teenager have done it atleast once, it's part of discovering sexuality, they are both not experimented in term of sex, they are still kids. The end of the movie is clear: they grow up from this experience and they are ready to live their life like adult would do. Sometime, teenager friendship are no longer possible went you finally become mature because you no longer *fit* with each other personnality.

At the start of the movie, they are kids, at they end, they are both adults and ready to live their own life. Obv like I said earlier the kiss didnt help, they were very humiliate that they had kiss, it was not a confirmation of their love by any mean, it is just that sometime went you got a friend and ur only having fun with him, drugs, party and all and you never talk serious to him about life, a kiss like that can be repulsive because ur not ready to have a mature friendship with him. They know that they could no longer be together because each time they would do something like party or taking some beer they would think instinctively about that kiss and they would be ashame of that, not because they love each other, but because they did something *beep* does, so they are still immature in a way because they cant be friend knowing that. They think they kill their virility in a way, I dunno how to explain that.

Sorry for my english, it is difficult to explain, im a *beep* frenchy :)

Edit: Phoenix, let me respond to that part:

How close can best friends be? Straight people can do threesome like that, but everybody doesnt react the same way after it happens.

Is it normal for them to do these types of things together? When ur very excited, everything can happens, trust me.

Do best friends in real life go through these same emotions? Dunno what you mean exactly by that. Same as above.

Without Luisa and the trip, would Tenoch and Julio have remained friends, would they have become maybe even closer, like brothers? Yes they would have remain friend, dunno about closer, but for sure they would still be friend, except if they would had a experience or a trip like that after that would had change their life. Some people never totally *grow up*, they sure did, they were very immature before that trip, so the day they would experience something like a trip or a parent death or something like that, they might *grow up* and live their life separate from each other. It's that instrospection that make them *grow up*.

Or would the normal wear and tear of college, moving away, etc. doom them anyway like it does for so many friends? Also in their case, the class differences? I don't know, but this movie makes me think!!! Sorry for the long post..

Like I said, they would have stay together as long as they dont grow up and become real adult. Some people never grow up (inside), they sure did after that trip. So maybe another completely different experience could had make them grow up, we dont know, but for sure that particular experience was necessary for their evolution. I believe that it is possible that they grow up and still be friend, it all depend of the nature of the experience, but obv this one with the kiss and all make this impossible.

But I think the two main point is: 1) Heterosexual can kiss each other in a threesome if they are very excited ; 2) After a experience like that, a lot of people are no longer friend because they dont feel like they need to be friend anymore, but it has nothing to do with love or hate, life goes on. So basically, nobody here would live and react from this experience the same way.

Diarios de Motocycleta pretty much as the same ending of growing up and taking decision.

Btw, Y Tu Mama Tambien is one of the best movie of all time period.

Also - they don't care, ultimately, that they are both *beep* around with each other's women, no, they get over that - what ultimately matters despite all their other sexual experiences, is the one between each other.

I thought that Julio was gay and in love with Tennoch, but perhaps Tennoch did not share those feelings. He is the one who runs out of the room the morning after and throws up, and he is the one who tells Julio he has to leave first in the scene at the end in the cafe. I'm not sure if it was just me being stereotypical, but I also noticed that there are touches of femininity in the way that Julio dresses (at the end, he has a ponytail, for example). Not that that is synonymous with being gay, just an observation.

I agree, somewhat. That is one of the themes of this film, the undercurrents of homosexuality (repressed and not). The masturbating, the showers, the girlfriend swap, the narration in the motel scene after Tenoch has sex with Luisa: 'Julio didn't know what he felt, only that it was anger, the last time he felt this way was when he was 8 years old...'

Yep, it's all right there. I don't know if it's actually 'love', per say, but it's attraction and sexual tension, definitely.

And it's all capped off nicely in the last scene in the cafe. You'll notice that Tenoch cannot even look at Julio directly in the eyes. He's too ashamed, too ashamed because what they did awoke feelings and desires that both of them were not ever able to address. There was always a barrier between them (remember the whole narration about the toilets: 'those were some things neither needed to know about the other'), one of the barriers being money and social status, and the other being repressed feelings between them, and once that barrier was broken through, their relationship crumbled because it was too much for both of them to accept.

Although I got the feeling that Julio dealt with it much better than Tenoch did, and maybe he would've been more open and would've accepted things differently if he saw that Tenoch did as well...




EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT.

No matter what anyone says about their sexual orientation (gay, straight, bi), the presence of a strong homo-erotic undertone throughout the movie cannot be denied. They both loved each other (as friends), yes, but whether they wanted to have sex with each other as lovers is open to interpretation, I think.

Perhaps Julio was upset/jealous because he half-heartedly wanted to achieve the same level of intimacy with Tenoche? Or maybe it was because Luisa had chosen Tenoche over him (Julio)? Julio's reaction seems to reinforce the former for me, since after seeing Tenoche with Luisa, Julio (in an attempt to get his revenge for Tenoche's "betrayal") tells him about his affair with Ana (this is the way I see it, ofcourse).

Luisa definitely felt something and she even stated something to this effect during the duo's quarrel in the car, which led to Luisa's planned strategy of having that threesome (and eventually two-some, lol). It caused the boys to lock lips, making them more aware of themselves and their feelings for each other. Their inability to accept this however led to the disintegration of the their friendship.


Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

OP: you make many good points and I agree that their friendship had lots of mirroring, e.g. sleeping with one another's girlfriends. I disagree that it was emotionally honest, which to me equals intimacy, and the road trip in the film proves the undoing because they are forced to confront one another emotionally.

However, there was a bond between them that has nothing to do with sexuality and you capture some of that with the points you make.

I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl

I agree with xtomatex pretty much what he/she said, I don't think they were gay. They never see each other after that coffee because they had uncomfortable situations together, dirty moments and both were ashamed what they have done as teenagers. It seems that both would do cheat their girlfiriends and Julio was jealous she took him first. They weren't aware kissing also. They both wanted to do better things, so I think that's why they stopped seeing each other. Sad ending though.