Alfonso Cuaron · 2001 · road

Alfonso Cuaron's 2001 road movie, a journey through both adolescence and Mexico itself. Two boys and a woman drive from Mexico City to a half-imagined beach on the Oaxaca coast, and the open road carries them toward sex, friendship, and a reckoning, while the country's poverty and politics drift quietly through the background of every mile.

1. 1
   Mexico City

   Two teenage boys, Julio and Tenoch, talk an older woman, Luisa, into a road trip out of Mexico City toward an invented paradise beach.

2. 2
   Oaxaca

   Through the back roads and checkpoints of rural Oaxaca they drive, the real and unequal Mexico sliding past the windows.

3. 3
   Boca del Cielo

   They reach the coast and the beach called Boca del Cielo, where friendship, desire, and a hidden grief all come to a head.