Oscars 2019: Review - Roma
Nominated for 10 Oscars (joint highest this year), including Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Picture.
Roma is the newest film from beloved Mexican Auteur Alfonso Cuaron, director of awards friendly films like Gravity, personal pieces like Y Tu Mama Tambien and technically complex works like Children of Men which I haven't seen yet but I'll watch it soon, I SWEAR. Anyway, Roma is a combination of all those aspects and very neatly so. It's the story of a woman called Cleo who is something of a housemaid for a middle class family in Mexico City. She cooks for them, cleans up after them and maybe she's even really cared about by them. It's not really about that though, it's about her and her inner turmoil over the period of about a year. As with many movies like this, it's largely fairly plotless. Stuff happens, there is a narrative thrust to the film that I'm still not sure I want to reveal two months on, but that's not what matters. It is meant to be an interior journey through her world and in that, Cuaron absolutely succeeds. If you want twists and turns, watch an Alfred Hitchcock film, but if it's gentle emotional beauty, Roma is exactly the right place to be.
Performances are an interesting thing to discuss with Roma because Cuaron took a very unique tact in casting a mixture of first time performers and Mexican screen veterans. One such newcomer (astonishingly) is the star of the film Yalitza Aparicio. She went through a series of auditions to be cast as Cleo and she is just sensational. Being the center of the film, Aparicio is on screen near constantly and also has to sell the emotional core of it and astonishingly, she does. Never for one second do you stop believing she is her character, although you never really think of her as a character. Frankly, it'd be hard to argue she hasn't earned her Oscar nomination. Also worthy of her surprise nomination is Marina de Tavira as the mother of the family. While not foregrounded as much, she also has a huge journey to go on and does it with ease, helping to reinforce the whole theme of the cruelty of the world to women. As for the rest of the cast, they're brilliant too, no one coming across as false at any moment. Admittedly, Roma benefits from having a cast of unknowns because that means I can only see the actors as these characters and not as actors but even with that, I don't think I can fault anyone.
What makes reviewing films like Roma particularly difficult (and we'll return to this again soon with another Oscar film) is that much of the beauty and power of the film is kind of intangible. How am I meant to explain to you how the film exercises its magic when I have no idea how it does that? The best I can do is just emphasise how beautifully crafted this film is, which I think must be where most of the power is from, although before I do, I'll finally address the elephant in the room. Roma is a film made by Netflix, distributed on Netflix. That's great because it means absolutely anyone with an account can give it a shot (and if you haven't worked it out yet, I recommend you do) but it's bad because if your TV is as shit as mine, you're not getting the full experience. So bear that in mind, that even though I've seen Roma twice now, it's been on my shitty TV both times. Anyway, it's visually stupendous and shot in black and white, putting to rest any criticisms anyone ever has about black and white photography. Each shot feels so meticulously executed and that's before you even get to the many long takes that make up most of the film. Thinking about how much work it took to make them is mind blowing, before you even think about how much work had to be done before and after the shoot to make the location look period appropriate. Cuaron has been famed for masterful long takes (I SWEAR I'LL WATCH CHILDREN OF MEN SOON) but I think I could make an entire Top 7 list of best long takes just from this film. It's astonishing and I only wish I could have seen it in a cinema.
As I said earlier, if you haven't seen Roma yet, you haven't got much of a leg to stand on. Yes it's black and white and yes it's got subtitles but it's on Netflix. If your home setup is good enough that you feel comfortable watching most of your films on it, you have no excuse. I don't think it's my favourite of the best picture nominees but it's the easiest to access and it deserves all the attention and praise it's getting. That's why I happily give Roma a
Roma is the newest film from beloved Mexican Auteur Alfonso Cuaron, director of awards friendly films like Gravity, personal pieces like Y Tu Mama Tambien and technically complex works like Children of Men which I haven't seen yet but I'll watch it soon, I SWEAR. Anyway, Roma is a combination of all those aspects and very neatly so. It's the story of a woman called Cleo who is something of a housemaid for a middle class family in Mexico City. She cooks for them, cleans up after them and maybe she's even really cared about by them. It's not really about that though, it's about her and her inner turmoil over the period of about a year. As with many movies like this, it's largely fairly plotless. Stuff happens, there is a narrative thrust to the film that I'm still not sure I want to reveal two months on, but that's not what matters. It is meant to be an interior journey through her world and in that, Cuaron absolutely succeeds. If you want twists and turns, watch an Alfred Hitchcock film, but if it's gentle emotional beauty, Roma is exactly the right place to be.
Performances are an interesting thing to discuss with Roma because Cuaron took a very unique tact in casting a mixture of first time performers and Mexican screen veterans. One such newcomer (astonishingly) is the star of the film Yalitza Aparicio. She went through a series of auditions to be cast as Cleo and she is just sensational. Being the center of the film, Aparicio is on screen near constantly and also has to sell the emotional core of it and astonishingly, she does. Never for one second do you stop believing she is her character, although you never really think of her as a character. Frankly, it'd be hard to argue she hasn't earned her Oscar nomination. Also worthy of her surprise nomination is Marina de Tavira as the mother of the family. While not foregrounded as much, she also has a huge journey to go on and does it with ease, helping to reinforce the whole theme of the cruelty of the world to women. As for the rest of the cast, they're brilliant too, no one coming across as false at any moment. Admittedly, Roma benefits from having a cast of unknowns because that means I can only see the actors as these characters and not as actors but even with that, I don't think I can fault anyone.
What makes reviewing films like Roma particularly difficult (and we'll return to this again soon with another Oscar film) is that much of the beauty and power of the film is kind of intangible. How am I meant to explain to you how the film exercises its magic when I have no idea how it does that? The best I can do is just emphasise how beautifully crafted this film is, which I think must be where most of the power is from, although before I do, I'll finally address the elephant in the room. Roma is a film made by Netflix, distributed on Netflix. That's great because it means absolutely anyone with an account can give it a shot (and if you haven't worked it out yet, I recommend you do) but it's bad because if your TV is as shit as mine, you're not getting the full experience. So bear that in mind, that even though I've seen Roma twice now, it's been on my shitty TV both times. Anyway, it's visually stupendous and shot in black and white, putting to rest any criticisms anyone ever has about black and white photography. Each shot feels so meticulously executed and that's before you even get to the many long takes that make up most of the film. Thinking about how much work it took to make them is mind blowing, before you even think about how much work had to be done before and after the shoot to make the location look period appropriate. Cuaron has been famed for masterful long takes (I SWEAR I'LL WATCH CHILDREN OF MEN SOON) but I think I could make an entire Top 7 list of best long takes just from this film. It's astonishing and I only wish I could have seen it in a cinema.
As I said earlier, if you haven't seen Roma yet, you haven't got much of a leg to stand on. Yes it's black and white and yes it's got subtitles but it's on Netflix. If your home setup is good enough that you feel comfortable watching most of your films on it, you have no excuse. I don't think it's my favourite of the best picture nominees but it's the easiest to access and it deserves all the attention and praise it's getting. That's why I happily give Roma a
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