Review of Roma (2018) by Iexist — 30 Dec 2018

Roma is the latest film by Alfonso Cuaron. It’s a departure from his most recent film, “Gravity” and honestly, the change didn’t bother me all that much. It’s a nice experience that’s beautifully shot, beautifully told and beautifully modest.

Roma tells the story of Cleo, a maid working for a higher class family in the neighbourhoods of colonia... Roma. The story is told from the limited perspective of Cleo and it entells her entire year with the family. It takes a while to get going, I can’t say I was fully invested until around the 45 minute mark, but once a certain scene played out I was invested for the rest of the runtime. The film’s presentation is simply phenomenal. Cuaron managed to capture the setting and breathe life into it. Every shot is a long drawn out shot that looks simply amazing and also highlights the talents of the actors. Speaking of which, the actors in this film are amazing. None of the actors involved give a weak performance, even the children. Goes to show what happens when you cast based on talent. Also benefitting the film is the sound design. The film’s use of sound is unmatched by anything else this year. When the characters walk through water, it just sounds so good! It’s honestly amazing how a film that doesn’t use colour has more colour in it than most other films.

In the background of Cleo’s story is also the story of Sofia, the mother of this household. Sofia’s gradual breakdown across the film was honestly one of the highlights of the film to me, especially considering how much of a good person she was earlier in the film. In fact, all of the adult characters in this film was really well fleshed out and feel like real people. I didn’t really hate any of the characters. My only complaint with the character work is that the child characters felt particularly underdeveloped. Each of them are given one or two moments to shine, but outside of them I didn’t really connect with them as people at all. I also found the oldest child kind of annoying. I didn’t really get to know anything about his character except he’s a ReBeLioUs tEeN hOw rElaTaBlE.

My only other complaint in the film comes from the long drawn out shots. While I already complimented these long drawn out shots, they’re undeniably impressive and gorgeous however I also felt they detrimented the film at one point. Near the end of the film, what I would consider the climax of the film felt kind of weirdly shot. While the shot itself is simply stunning to look at, and the fact that the climax of the film is done in a single shot is undeniably brave, I didn’t feel like the characters were in any danger. I’m not really sure what would’ve prevented this issue, but I would’ve suggested holding the camera a bit closer to the action just so I could’ve seen what was going on a little better. It’s a shame too, everything leading up to this moment was framed in such a perfect way that honestly, it’s such a shame I had this issue.

Overall, Roma is an experience. The well developed characters, amazing visual and audio quality and modest tone make for what is one of the better films of this year. I recommend watching this film on the big screen in a cinema to appreciate its full beauty, but if not then it’s on Netflix. Go watch it.