ROMA
From Academy Award winner
Alfonso Cuarón, the director of “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, “Gravity" &
"Children of Men" we find in his latest effort a film shot in stunning
and flawless digital black and white simply called “Roma”. A story of great personal
relevance and importance to the director himself about some of the events and experiences
in his childhood growing up in Mexico around the early 1970’s.
“Roma” follows a somewhat shy
but amazingly kind young woman named “Cleo” (Yalitza Aparicio), a young
domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico
City. The film takes place one summer period following largely “Cleo’s” personal
story. Specially, she is a representative amalgamation of the love, respect and
praise to all of the women who help raised him.
Cuarón draws vividly in very
direct detail this childhood story to create an emotional portrait of how domestic
life and strife, social hierarchy and political turmoil had an impact on his
and other’s lives at that time.
“Roma” is currently in limited
release in theaters and will be available to streaming on NETFLIX December 14th, 2018
REVIEW: From
all advance accounts “Roma” is a certain lock to receive the much-coveted double
nomination both as Best Picture and as Best Foreign language Film when the 2019
Oscar nominations are announced in January. Many professional critics have
hailed this effort as a masterpiece in film making. And while I agree I found
the film’s overall story and characters richly complex, teetering in a mesmerizing hypnotic perpetual dreamlike state and with profound
displays of cultural intricacies through universal prism of joy and sadness, I found the "Roma" less masterful and more deeply moving as it focused exclusively on the journey of “Cleo” story.
“Roma” is less a conventional
viewing film and more of a visual emotional piece of cinematic art. To be
viewed with the same stillness reverence one would have upon the gazing for the
first time of the rich details of “The Mona Lisa” (Leonardo), “The Creation of
Adam” (Michelangelo) and “The Starry Night” (Van Gogh). And it is “Cleo” life, her
love, her loyalty, her heartaches and her joys that are the rich details of
this film’s effort that keeps you fixed to the screen. Including one I dare not
ever easily forget. A truly powerful moving scene as we witness “Cleo” going into labor from early contractions to the child's birth.
Running 2 hours and in subtitles this film is not
for the average viewer at all. Note, its a story that is very deliberate in its pace and very documentary-esque in its execution. There are no momentous
events to easily recall after watching this story. And in addition, "Roma" also has a few odd scenes in it, one of which where we see a hundred or so young
men all training to be martial artist in an open field. It seemed odd on the surface
for its inclusion in the story, but never to the point it felt it was a detriment to the central story itself.
But those minor issues aside, for me in large measure the truly imaginative point of the entire film “Roma”
is to show that while taking place in Spanish speaking Mexico, it truly is representative
of all other cultures regardless of their race, their class differences or their
station in life. To illustrate that at some point we all face experience similar in the array of happiness and misfortune. And it is in most of
those circumstances, just as it we witness with “Cleo”, whether in families of many forms or size in numbers,
no matter the details of their triumph or tragedy, in the end we all rely on strong
resourceful women more than we imagine – more than we give them credit, to get through any episode with love, care and dignity.
3.75 Stars
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