(In theaters and on Netflix.)<\/em><\/strong> With a filmography that includes titles like <\/span>Children of Men<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Gravity <\/span><\/i>(to say nothing of his earlier works), Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n has established himself as an inarguably masterful filmmaker; a craftsman of cinematic experiences that typically garner acclaim (and a few trophies) during the all-important awards season. <\/span>Roma<\/strong><\/em> effortlessly follows suit: Shot in stunning black-and-white with intense attention to even the most banal of details, Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s deeply personal, semi-autobiographical drama tracks a year in the life of a housemaid in Mexico. Inspired by (and dedicated to) Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s actual housemaid from his childhood, <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i> is nothing if not well-made. Unfortunately, that\u2019s about all it is. <\/span><\/p>\n Cuar\u00f3n employs his usual array of filmmaking tricks and tools \u2013\u00a0wide shots, lingering on seemingly unimportant objects, and more wide shots \u2014 but those feel incongruous to the personal nature of <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i>. The film follows Cleo, a young woman employed by a wealthy family in Mexico. The husband is a successful doctor who travels far too often (your eyebrow raise is justified), while the wife remains at home with the children, whom Cleo \u2014 along with another house helper \u2014 watches over as part of her daily work. Cleo\u2019s deeper connection with the children is evident, as is her poor choice in men: Her lover is essentially the Hispanic version of Danny McBride in <\/span>The Foot Fist Way<\/span><\/i>. And so it\u2019s not surprising that he ghosts Cleo after she reveals her pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\n To say anything more of that plot would spoil this particular arc \u2014 the most meaningful component of <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i>. And yet, much of the film feels bizarrely impersonal. The viewer understands that this is a story about Cleo\u2019s life and experiences, but\u00a0Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s distant approach \u2014 he shoots the character like a still-life portrait \u2013\u00a0results in a cold and underwhelming experience. Perhaps if Cuar\u00f3n used a different approach (one that emphasizes Cleo\u2019s point-of-view), or if he wrote Cleo as more than a passive witness to the world around her, <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i> might have resonated more. As it stands, it\u2019s a beautiful film that\u2019s so preoccupied with creating a realistic, immersive world of sights and sounds that it forgets to make its central character an actual person.<\/span><\/p>\n That said, newcomer Yalitza Aparicio has a face and demeanor that\u2019s inherently naturalistic, and well-suited to <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i>\u2019s atmosphere and story. If anything, she makes the most out of what little she\u2019s given. This is a woman who is not an active participant in her own life; things just happen <\/span>to<\/span><\/i> her. Bad things. A <\/span>lot<\/span><\/i> of bad things. She\u2019s the embodiment of Murphy\u2019s Law. Despite its basis in reality (these things apparently <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> happen to Cuar\u00f3n’s maid), that ceaseless barrage of unfortunate occurrences begins to feel somewhat cruel at a certain point, and the film struggles to justify them \u2013\u00a0particularly in the third act. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible to discuss <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i> in this way without inserting myself into the review. As a white American woman, my perspective is inherently limited \u2014 through no fault of my own. It\u2019s been shaped by my own set of life experiences, and although I am a woman, I am still white, and thus not immune to such limitations in empathic ability. <\/span>Roma<\/span><\/i>\u00a0will connect with certain viewers whose experiences echo those depicted in the film. The more I listen to those experiences, the more I appreciate what\u00a0Cuar\u00f3n\u00a0has made and accomplished, even if I struggled to connect with it. Those viewers see something remarkable in this simple story of a young Mexican woman existing and living in this time and place; a woman who actually looks like them, and not some glamorized movie star version; a woman who is average. To see those experiences mirrored back on a giant screen in a film that is being played in theaters all over the country (and in Mexico) is inarguably meaningful. And I recognize that is not my experience to have.<\/span><\/p>\n (In theaters and on Netflix.) With a filmography that includes titles like Children of Men and Gravity (to say nothing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":10813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Grade: B-<\/span><\/h3>\n
2 hrs., 15 min.; rated R for\u00a0graphic nudity, some disturbing images, and language<\/em><\/h5>\n
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