Swirling with handheld shots, soft colors and the arid beauty of southern Mexico, Y Tu Mama Tambien uses the form of an American teen comedy to tell a subtle story of class distinction. Managing to be funny without being exploitive, and to be affecting without being maudlin, Y Tu Mama shows what American directors could be doing with their youth-oriented films if only they had a little faith in their audiences. Instead, it takes Mexican writer/director Alfonso Cuarón to rescue the format from its many mindless incarnations and to turn the teen road movie into a successful meditation on what it really means to be young, ignorant and dangerously hormonal.