Y tu mamá también was even better than I'd been led to believe. Lots of levels and lots of detail to enjoy here: not only the sexy coming-of-age story with an underlay of personal tragedy; there's also the languorous look at Mexican pop culture, landscape, class divisions and, perhaps most of all, the language gap between the two young chilangos and their gachupina companion. (See the nifty chilango glossary from the Y tu mamá también website.)
Between this and Amores perros, Mexican cinema really seems to be coming of age. The few art house exports of previous years like Doña Herlinda y su hijo, Como agua para chocolate and Cronos covered some of the same ground but seemed more constrained by budget and technical limitations, not to mention much less hip -- at least to the eyes of this old gringo.
Let's hope there's lots more to come. IMDB shows Y tu mamá director Alfonso Cuarón's upcoming projects as all being Hollywood productions in English, but Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu does have one project which looks like it's worth keeping an eye on under the title 21 gramos.
/ Usenet thread