Roma (2018)
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Written by Alfonso Cuaron
Starring Yalitza Aparicio
Release Date December 14th, 2018
Published December 11th, 2018
Film Critics tend to be accused of automatically loving movies that are subtitled and in black and white. It’s a trope of my kind that we will always heap praise upon a foreign film while bagging on the latest Hollywood offering that earns millions of dollars. People assume this has to do with critics establishing our highbrow credentials but my more than 16 years of experience has taught me why this trend takes hold.
Having spent well over a decade seeing every Hollywood wide release movie in the theater I can attest, it begins to wear you down over time. You, dear reader, may only see one teen oriented slasher film but I see 5 or 6 per year. You see perhaps three blockbusters per year on average, I see them all. You see maybe one Young Adult romance per year, I am inundated with them. Eventually, after experiencing the same Hollywood formula year after year after year, your brain begins to beg for something different and since subtitled black and white movies are a rarity in this day and age, it makes sense that we critics gravitate towards them, if only to break the monotony.
Roma is the latest of the black and white subtitled movies to receive lavish praise from my kind. Roma has 99% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com and has been honored with a Best Picture nomination at the Critics Choice Movie Awards, the first Foreign Film in the CCMA's 24 year history. Critics adore this minimalist and deeply personal story from the brilliant director Alfonso Cuaron and I think I am a fan. Or, is it just so welcomingly different that I just appreciate the difference. Let’s find out.
Roma tells the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young maid working in the home of a well off family in Mexico in the early 1970's. Cleo’s life is a routine of cleaning and cooking and bonding with the four young children in the family. As we watch we get the sense that Cleo is almost like part of the family… almost. Little scenes in Roma give us a sense of the boundaries that the adults in the family work awkwardly to maintain.
The family is beginning to splinter as the story goes on but that’s well in the background. The forefront of the story is Cleo and her day to day routine which she breaks only occasionally to go on dates with Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), a handsome but unusual young man, deeply dedicated to the martial arts. Fermin pursues Cleo but when she ends up pregnant, that pursuit ends abruptly and Cleo is left to take care of herself and worry as to whether she will be able to keep her job.
Although I have given it a linear description, there really isn’t much of a story in Roma. This isn’t a traditional kind of movie. Director Alfonso Cuaron’s aim appears to be an authentic portrait of the life of a low wage working woman in the early 1970’s, perhaps a callback to someone he knew when he was young. It’s deeply affecting as a portrait of the character of Cleo who is compellingly portrayed by newcomer Yalitza Aparicio.
Cuaron, rather impassively, floats his camera like a fly on a wall, observing at a distance the life of Cleo and the travails of her day to day routine. The panning shots of the home of the central family are quite beautiful and they set you up for even more beautiful, sweeping images when the film ventures out of the home, including a beautifully surreal firefighting scene in which the attendants of a New Year’s Eve Party are drafted in to help put out a forest fire. It’s a scene that would be comfortably at home in a Fellini movie, especially when a costume wearing man begins to sing.
Alfonso Cuaron handled his own cinematography on Roma and his work is immaculate. The look of the film is gorgeous with the black & white photography giving the movie age and depth and a unique beauty that a director could likely only get from Black & White film. The film is flawlessly lensed and the technical filmmaking aspect of Roma is the real reason to see it. Rarely are movies this beautiful to just admire.
With all of that said, I am not sure how to recommend Roma. I have come to the conclusion that the film worked on me. I do like Roma a great deal, and not just because I am bored with every other type of movie in the market. The beauty and warmth of the film are more than enough for me to give a recommendation but there must be a caveat. Roma takes a long time to warm up. The film is deliberate and anyone looking for instant gratification should find another movie.
The film is kind of gross early on with an extra special focus on a very, very messy dog. Then there is some highly unnecessary full male nudity which really puts me off. I understand why it is there, from a character standpoint and from a story standpoint, but I think the point could have been made elsewhere in the movie that this particular character is a childish lout. I don’t need to see him or anyone performing nude martial arts.
So, who do I recommend Roma to, since I am recommending the movie? The audience is fans of awards shows. If you are someone who really loves awards shows and wants to see all of the nominees, you will need to see Roma. It would come as no surprise, given the critical consensus, if Roma is nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It deserves that level of praise. If however, you aren’t an awards junkie, you probably aren’t a hardcore film buff either. That probably means that Roma is not for you.
