{"id":6490,"date":"2018-12-04T10:40:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T15:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6490"},"modified":"2019-06-09T13:09:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T17:09:26","slug":"review-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6490","title":{"rendered":"Review: ROMA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By delivering storytelling without pretense, writer\/director Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n reminds us of the power of pure dramatic cinema.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\"\"\u201cRoma\u201d gives us the mundanities of life. Our protagonist, Cleo (Yaltza Aparicio), works as a nanny for a middle class family in the Colonia Roma district of Mexico City. It\u2019s the early 1970s, a time of political strife. Her employers, Sofia and Antonio, aren\u2019t people of great wealth, but they are financially secure. Their residence provides room to accommodate four children and Sofia\u2019s mother. Cleo lives in a detached apartment. Along with fellow worker Adela (Nancy Garcia Garcia), we see Cleo performing various domestic duties, primarily taking care of the children. And it is clear that the little ones love and adore her, with the youngest boy sharing a bond that is normally reserved for that of a mother and her child.<\/p>\n

In one early, subtle scene that warms the heart, Cleo and the little boy share a moment on a rooftop. Lying on her back with her head opposite the child\u2019s, she comforts him from a position of carefully judged understanding. It\u2019s a perfect display of empathy rarely found in movies these days. Cleo relates to the youngster and everyone around her in a special way\u2014from a place of unbridled innocence. By saying very little, she tells us so much. \u201cRoma\u201d is a film about stolen moments, conveyed without manipulation.<\/p>\n

Taking place over a period of months, we see Cleo outside the household. Her boyfriend, Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), studies martial arts. In one scene, Cleo visits him in the desert where he is training with a large group. They are visited by an expert, who leads the class in a lesson in which he closes his eyes and strikes a pose. As the students struggle to get into position, some of them falling over and unable to copy the teacher, Cleo effortlessly performs the exercise. No attention by others is paid to Cleo\u2019s feat, but we see it, and we know what this means.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Stolen Moments on display.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s first feature since winning the Oscar for 2013\u2019s \u201cGravity,\u201d \u201cRoma\u201d seems far removed from that science fiction tale. However, what ties the two movies together is his commitment to character and familial hardships. But missing from this production is Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with whom Cuar\u00f3n worked not only on \u201cGravity\u201d but on 2006\u2019s \u201cChildren of Men\u201d and Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s breakthrough 2001\u2019s \u201cY Tu Mam\u00e1 Tambi\u00e9n.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cuar\u00f3n directs first time actress Yaltza Aparicio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surprisingly, Cuar\u00f3n steps in and lenses \u201cRoma\u201d himself. By employing the Arri Alexa 65, he digitally recorded the film in 6.5K employing the 2.35.1 aspect ratio. This makes a small story appear large and sumptuous, giving this tiny fable epic visual treatment. Cuar\u00f3n also made the bold choice to present the movie in black and white. It\u2019s a collection of classic and striking images that will likely garner him nominations for cinematography. Talk is that he may find himself nominated in many categories, including directing, writing, and for his camera work. All of this praise is well-deserved.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(L to R) Marco Graf as Pepe, Daniela Demesa as Sofi, Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, Marina De Tavira as Sofia, Diego Cortina Autrey as To\u00f1o, Carlos Peralta Jacobson as Paco. Photo by Carlos Somonte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A personal story for Cuar\u00f3n, it is easy to believe that \u201cRoma\u201d is a somewhat autobiographic, drawing on real experiences from his childhood in Mexico. There is a level of detail here that resonates universally. For example, Cuar\u00f3n gives us an opening title sequence shot against the stones of the family\u2019s driveway entrance. Cleo is washing this spot, removing the detritus left by their dog. This becomes a recurring reference throughout the movie. Cuar\u00f3n is determined to revisit real images, giving us the mundane things that compose one\u2019s memory of things past. And some of these memories are unpleasant and immensely sad, but they are worth remembering, because they matter.<\/p>\n

Few films this year impacted me more than \u201cRoma.\u201d Movies like Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s \u201cThe Rider\u201d or Bing Liu\u2019s \u201cMinding the Gap\u201d brought us inside intimate experiences that shape personalities. And while we can be spirited away with wonderfully colorful and exciting fantasies like the much lauded \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d there is room in our cinematic lives for real stories about real people that are painful to watch, but leave us better off because we did not close our eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n’s first film since 2013’s Gravity might be his best yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1073,1075,79,1076,268,121,1072,1074],"class_list":["post-6490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-reviews","tag-alfonso-cuaron","tag-black-and-white","tag-drama","tag-mexico","tag-netflix","tag-review","tag-roma","tag-yaltza-aparicio","post_format-post-format-aside","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7458,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions\/7458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}