Alfonso Cuaron has become well -known for his unique style and ability to create groundbreaking special effects, most notably in Children of Men and Gravity. For Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron sought to do the opposite and imitate the quiet moments of real life as best he could. In fact, he wanted to strip himself of the traditional tools filmmakers were using to make films and create something that felt true to life.
One of the chief tactics Cuaron adopted in order to give his film a realist bent was the use of documentary-style camera work and handheld cinematography. The shakiness of the cinematography makes it seem as though it is being recorded on unsophisticated equipment, and as if the camera's perspective is another character in the story, a fourth eye on the proceedings, which sits back and watches from a distance. Cuaron said in an interview about the film, "It was about decomposing, as opposed to composing the shot. It was about making it look improvised. One of the reasons why I wanted to do this film was because I wanted to go back to my roots, and I’m not talking about Mexico, but my creative roots: to make a film that we would have loved to do before going to film school, when you don’t know how to shoot a movie or compose a shot."
The pure techniques and affecting coming-of-age subject matter reflects his desire to connect with a younger, more innocent self. For the creation of the film, he looked to his idols like Godard, citing Godard's film Masculin, Feminin as inspiration for including an omniscient narrator. They shot the film in sequence and Cuaron called making the film "a reclamation of Mexico."
