La Máquina, Hulu’s six-episode miniseries starring Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, is the most recent collaboration between the pair. Bernal performs Esteban, an ageing boxer, and Luna performs Andy, his supervisor who’s obsessive about trying younger. Created by Marco Ramírez and directed by Gabriel Ripstein, La Máquina is Hulu’s first Spanish-language unique sequence. However it’s also important as a result of it reunites two actors whose friendship goes past their movie-making days to early childhood. The actors had their breakthrough function in the identical movie: Alfonso Cuarón‘s Y tu mamá también (2001). Bernal and Luna’s stunning on-screen chemistry in Y tu mamá también was strengthened by their real-life friendship, one thing which has endured in quite a few collaborations by means of the years.
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna’s Dynamic Is the Coronary heart of ‘Y tu mamá también’
Y tu mamá también follows Julio (Bernal) and Tenoch (Luna), teenage finest associates dwelling in Mexico Metropolis who persuade an older lady named Luisa (Maribel Verdú) to affix them on a road trip to a fictional seaside referred to as “Heaven’s Mouth.” Over the course of the journey, Luisa helps Julio and Tenoch realize their romantic feelings for each other. Tenoch and Julio navigate these adjustments of their dynamic by means of a sequence of diversions which skirt across the topic of queerness however do not straight method it till the ultimate evening of the journey, after they kiss and presumably do extra off-screen. Months later, they run into one another and get espresso. Tenoch brings up Daniel, a homosexual pal of theirs, and Julio says that he was kicked out of his dad and mom’ home however is now a lot happier and has a boyfriend. Tenoch shakily says, “That is cool,” fumbling over his phrases. Julio tries to gentle a cigarette and fails, whereas Tenoch focuses too exhausting on stirring his tea. For a lot of the movie, the characters have alternated between nonstop joking and yelling at one another. In distinction, the awkward delicacy of this second is transferring to look at.
This Gael García Bernal Movie Might Be the Most Intense Hours of Walking You’ve Ever Seen
The 2011 movie exhibits a hike that destroys a relationship and it is completely riveting.
Bernal and Luna had been of their early twenties throughout filming, however they completely captured each the boyish silliness and gutting teenage angst of their characters. Even with all of the bodily comedy, Julio and Tenoch evidently take care of one another deeply. A part of what makes this friendship so convincing is that Bernal and Luna had been associates all their lives and introduced their pre-established shut bond to the set. In an interview with The New York Times, the actors defined that their moms had been associates even earlier than their sons had been born a yr aside. Luna said, “It’s merely one thing neither of us can provide up. I don’t wish to, however even when I needed to, I wouldn’t have the ability to,” including that they had been “nearer to brothers” than associates.
‘Y tu mamá también’ Was the First of Many Collaborations Between Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal
Since their breakout second with Y tu mamá también, Bernal and Luna have remained frequent collaborators over the course of their careers. The actors based Canana Movies and La Corriente del Golfo collectively, the latter being the manufacturing firm that backed La Máquina. In 2023, Bernal and Luna additionally signed on to co-produce an upcoming The Boys spin-off sequence entitled The Boys: Mexico. Whereas each actors have maintained accomplished solo careers, they’ve additionally acted collectively twice since Y tu mamá también, first as soccer gamers in Rudo y Cursi (2008) after which alongside Will Ferrell in Casa de Mi Padre (2012).
La Máquina marks a reunion for the actors in additional methods than one. Not solely did the sequence movie in Mexico, however Bernal and Luna introduced previous collaborators again, such because the lighting designer for Y tu mamá también, in line with an interview with Vanity Fair. Throughout the identical interview, Bernal defined that the preliminary idea for La Máquina got here to him and Luna in 2010; the chums had been strolling by means of the snow to a kebab store in Berlin after a late evening selling a film after they determined that they wanted to behave collectively once more. Now, 14 years later, that undertaking is lastly right here.
La Máquina is presently streaming on Hulu within the U.S.