'Roma' Review

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director; Alfonso Cuarón, Best Actress; Yalitza Aparicio, Best Supporting Actress; Marina de Tavira, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

Won: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director; Alfonso Cuarón, and Best Cinematography.

Roma chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

Written, directed, shot, and edited by Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is a semi-autobiographical story primed to be a frontrunner in numerous categories this awards season. Cuarón's latest is largely an intimate "slice of life" film which details a profoundly personal tale about overcoming life's adversities. Presented entirely in black and white with no score or celebrity stars and all its dialogue spoken in Spanish or Mixtec (a native dialect), Roma likely won't entrance the average moviegoer. In fact, I'm already expecting detractors to emerge soon as the film recently debuted on its distributor's streaming service and its awards campaign continues to gain momentum among regional critic groups and awards voters. Yes, Netflix is finally in the Best Picture conversation after narrowly missing last year with Mudbound.

While it's understandable that the attributes mentioned above may deter you from even watching Roma at home, I urge you to give it a chance and make an effort to see it in theaters (though I understand that may be easier said than done due to a limited theatrical release). If that's unfeasible for you, watching it on Netflix will certainly suffice. I sought Roma out in theaters about a week ago and waited to review the film until I'd had a chance to view it a second time on Netflix. A second viewing at home honestly made it much easier for me to immerse myself because I was already familiar with the story and dialogue. Rather than keeping my eyes peeled to the bottom of the screen so I could read subtitles and understand everything that was being said (my three years of High School Spanish could only help me so much), I was able to take in the entire frame at once this time around and soak in all of Cuarón's crisp, attractive imagery. 

It's no secret that Cuarón's a masterful filmmaker. Heck, I'm not even the biggest fan of Gravity, but even I can admit that film's astounding on a technical level and his Oscar win there was well-deserved. For his first film since winning Best Director at the Oscars almost five years ago, Cuarón's reigned himself back to tell a smaller-scaled story but simultaneously taken on more responsibility by serving as his own cinematographer. Cuarón manages to land some subdued, emotional gut-punches and orchestrate large-scale insanity with an immaculate attention-to-detail most directors could only dream of! The black and white aesthetic is also an exceptional and appropriate stylistic choice. I'd just say the pacing could probably be improved a tad by removing a scene, but otherwise, didn't have any issue with it.

If there's one aspect which Roma was to live or die on, it's the performance from its inexperienced lead actress Yalitza Aparicio. Before Roma, Aparicio was merely a schoolteacher who had never acted professionally. Whether she will choose ever to act again remains to be seen, but she legitimately deserves to be in contention for Best Actress. Aparicio provides a warm, caring presence befitting of a housekeeper, but slowly opens up to display an extraordinarily authentic emotional vulnerability that will surely sink your heart before Cuarón breaks it into a million pieces.

Surrounding Aparicio is the family whom she cares for, played by Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga, Verónica García, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Daniela Demesa, and Marco Graf respectively. They each did a fine job, but Marina de Tavira is an obvious stand-out on account of her character's unrestrained emotional turmoil, and Marco Graf's Pepe makes a compelling case for 2018's most insightful and adorable onscreen child as he provides anecdotes and profound wisdom pertaining to his "past lives." Elsewhere, Nancy García García, José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza, and Jorge Antonio Guerrero are all noteworthy additions to the cast in their varying supporting roles.

I admittedly didn't take to Roma as much as I was hoping to on my first viewing, but it stuck with me, and more of the subtext hit me in waves the second time around. Who would have ever thought one of 2018's best films would wash up onto the shore of a streaming service? Let's just hope those who discover it there are receptive to Cuarón's narrative. 

Film Assessment: A