Review of Roma (2018) by Olivierpiel — 15 Dec 2018

Critics fall over themselves for another slick foamy soapy film from Cuaron, with very simple cinematographic tricks. It is obviously copying Zerkalo (The Mirror) by Tarkovsky but with far less ingenuity, creativity and poetry. Whereas Tarkovsky makes his life and his memories interesting by cleverly destroying time and space, blurring the lines between reality and dream, and making us think, think, think about our own memories, Cuaron serves a linear, egotistical, boring diaporama of his own life that didn't touch me at all. All this of course with a heavy dose of sentimentality and "humanism" that can't go wrong with middle-class critics.

But what about the cinematography?

The initial slow constant circular movement of the camera is obviously designed to clash with the perpetual zig-zagging of the little bee worker, create this extra tension and the rest is just like that. The scene of the fire is completely in line with his work in "children of men" with camera shifting from different points of foci in the same frame. All this is probably well crafted, and different from Hollywood, but doesn't inspire any beauty or even elicit any form of intellectual reflection.