Roma

A film with the very distinctive signature of its creator, Roma tells a story about the fragile aspects of life more through its visual art than through the faces and dialogue of its characters. Though it does work with dialogue and facial expressions (and Yalitza Aparicio is great), it does not offer the audience a universally appealing, traditionally emotional message (the film doesn’t even have any “viewer-manipulating” original music). After using his extraordinary filmmaking talent for the commercial blockbuster Gravity, Cuarón wanted to enjoy some pure filmmaking pleasure, without any obligations to studio investments. Roma is a brilliant piece of art in which I admired every shot (three or four scenes were quite disturbing to me) and perceived and acknowledged all of the social references (class-based society, the extraordinary strength of a woman with a difficult fate), but it did not engage me emotionally as much as Gravity or Children of Men. (07/02/2019)

Roma isn’t love at first sight, it’s not a film that would hook me in the first minutes keep me hooked all the way till the end. But, after two or three days, it did grow on me. Cuarón this time delivers a detached view into a couple of months of the life of a broken Mexican family, mainly that of their maid, Cleo. The story takes place in a sort of by the way manner, with the camera following relative “non-stories”. But each of those fragments compose a surprisingly rich mosaic of human destinies and by the end the viewer must acknowledge that a lot has actually happened. The similarities with Czech films that in the microcosm of one family tell wider stories with a universal reach are not entirely out of place. Watching it in the cinema is certainly worth it, the camera work and, in particular, the sound are top-notch. One of the films of the year. #svetozorcinema (16/12/2018)

The rumors didn't lie, at least not in terms of paying tribute to mothers and women in general. However, at the core of the whole epic, there is nothing but confirmation of the known truth that, in the end, the fairer sex is stronger and more prepared for life. The skill with which Alfonso Cuarón builds a complex dramatic arc in the midst of what seems to be an ordinary situation is undeniable. The only problem for me, one that persists throughout the entire film, is the way the twists are delivered. Very few things bother me as much as when a character indulges in long, uninterrupted shots during an instantly induced depression. It's nothing more than a call for artificial attention that causes the cohesion of family and life's upheavals to crumble before my eyes. (17/12/2018)

The best works of the Czechoslovak new wave (although Fellini would know one in that) has just grown to include a related Mexican cousin, who in the circles of “more demanding" viewers can perhaps not even evoke many captivating Mexican waves. Which is so telling that I will forgive the originally intended hymns for every single aspect, from non-actors through filming and sounding to the sophistication of the narrative, which completely fulfills the saying “the devil is hidden in the details". What Cuarón, as a screenwriter / cinematographer / director, can “as if inadvertently" do in mise-en-scène (or purely noise outside the picture) in mere hints, is more than admirable. To make matters worse, despite the seemingly primordial coldness, this “celebration of ordinary strong women in our lives" is also captivating and arousing emotions like a few movies in recent years. Roma looks like a film that was five decades earlier. However, thanks to its qualities, it would not be forgotten, even if it was actually created fifty years ago. On the contrary, it would be lovingly remembered in the intentions “such master pieces are unfortunately no longer filmed today". Thanks to Cuarón, however, this is not the case; and for that one must be infinitely grateful, whether ultimately Roma is his cup of coffee or not. (15/12/2018)

Roma will not chew the viewer and make them bite their nails in tension, nor does it reminisce the type of ode to human suffering sung by the unfortunate protagonists of, for instance, Bicycle Thieves. And yet it is beautiful. It’s a film about emotions so real that in the cinema I felt a chill on my spine every time I remembered I was just watching a film. A sensitively slow narrative where the consequences are not as important as experiencing the present and empathy towards the main character. The style reflects that – the long shots and the impressive depth of the composition of the scenes, whose staging and sound design let the viewer wander in that space together with the characters to fully savour the emotions that the narration carefully prepares and foreshadows (the closing cleanse in the sea). Even though I didn’t feel the coveted cinephile bliss, I fell in love with Roma for its authentic portrayal of human togetherness and for its world, which can be inhospitable, unpredictable and loving at the same time. The direction and the cinematography are awesome. (19/12/2018)