Movie Info
Movie Name: Roma
Studio: Espectáculos Fílmicos El Coyúl
Genre(s): Drama
Release Date(s): August 30, 2018 (Venice)/November 21, 2018 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Cleo…the best mother you can fire
In the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez (Yalitza Aparicio) is an indigenous maid and childcare provider for the home of Sofía (Marina de Tavira), Antonio (Fernando Grediaga), the four children, and the grandmother Teresa (Verónica García). Cleo’s connection to the family is threatened when Cleo finds herself pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend Fermín (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) and the marriage of Sofia and Antonio begins to break-up…but a woman’s love for “her” children knows little obstacles.
Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is a semi-autobiographical black-and-white drama set in Mexico City in the 1970s. The film premiered at Venice Film Festival and won the Golden Lion and was released by Netflix on November 21, 2018 along with a limited theatrical release. The film tied the record for most nominations by a non-English film (with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) at the Academy Awards with wins for for Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, and nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (Yalitza Aparicio), Best Supporting Actress (Marina de Tavira), Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. The Criterion Collection released a special version of the film (Criterion #1014).
I know how much you love children…so what if I had one? Wouldn’t that be fun?
Alfonso Cuarón is a gifted director who showed a great flare for drama with Y Tu Mama También in 2001. Recently, Cuarón has provided great science-fiction and fantasy films with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), and Gravity (2013)…it was odd for him to return to a smaller format, but the personal picture really works.
The story is rather minimal, and it feels more like a “slice of life” type of story in the vein of Bergman and other foreign directors. While the movie easily feels it could turn at any moment (and it somewhat does involving Cleo and her unborn child), the film largely feels like a “life goes on” type of story that shows that there are adversities and giant moments in your life…but you endure. It might always feel like the end, but things get better (or at least return to normal).
Well…your boyfriend definitely gets “worst boyfriend” classification
Yalitza Aparicio oozes with sympathy as the lead actress. You feel for her and the fact that she is essentially a second mother (maybe even primary mother) to the children. You could easily say that, but Marina de Tavira is also sympathetic and not entirely uncaring for her workers…but she can also dismiss them if she’s angry. I even like the small scenes involving the grandmother played by Verónica García who finds herself trapped with Cleo when she goes into labor. Jorge Antonio Guerrero goes down as one of the all-time “bad boyfriends”.
The simple story and strong acting are bolstered by amazing cinematography. The film is gorgeous. It is loaded with long, tracking shots and great uses of light. The sequence at the end with the sun low on the horizon as Cleo risks herself by going into the water after the children is perfect…along with the framing of the “poster” shot which has a lot of iconographic imagery. Cuarón isn’t afraid to hold a shot longer than the average shot, and it pays off.
You know I’m going to have dock your pay for this…right?
Roma is a great film that deserves much of the praise it gets. Cuarón based events of his story after his childhood and the people that worked in his home. Events like the riot are semi-fictionalized real events based on the Corpus Christie Massacre and the paramilitary group called Los Halcones, and Cuarón presents them in a way that shows how different it was to grow up at that time. Roma is the type of movie that could go on and on but still manages to be captivating. It questions the way that people treat and interact with “servants” when normally they are just supporting characters in films…but as Cleo proves they are really often so much more.
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