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Roma
Possibly the most overrated film of 2018, Roma is a flawless technical achievement that falls short as a complete and engaging motion picture experience, despite its earning 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Foreign Film and Best Picture of the Year.
The film chronicles a year in the life of a young maid named Cleo and the family that she cares for in Mexico during the 1970's. Allegedly this story is based on real life events in the life of writer/director/film editor Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity). The story focuses on young Cleo trying to deal with the fact that she has become pregnant by a cocky young soldier while the family that she works for are dealing with the fact that the father has run off to be another woman. Sadly, only the mother knows the truth, the children think their father is away on business.
Not sure why, but I had a feeling that I was going to be disappointed with this film when I learned that it was distributed by Netflix, a company that seems to be more obsessed with the bottom line than supporting creativity in its most appealing form. Don't get me wrong, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, this film is a textbook on how to put a story on film. I will be shocked if it doesn't win the Oscar for cinematography because the film is absolutely gorgeous to look at...black and white photography that enhanced the beauty of what was being presented. Cinematic photographs at every turn that produce vivid cinematic emotion inside the viewer.
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Cuaron also scores in his casting of an unknown in the lead role, which heightened the authenticity of the story. I also loved the actress who played the mother and the nominations both actresses received are deserved. The idea of using a minimal music score is usually something that works in independent films, but this was a rare instance where the lack of music was a detriment to the story not an enhancement.
The utilization of visual motifs totally works here, this is a director who has an innate sense of the visual onscreen, like Boz Luhrman, who will sometimes let substance fall to the wayside in the name of the visual, but unlike Luhrman, I think Cuaron puts a little too much trust in his material here, because it never really engages the viewer the way it should. A must for filmmaking students, but as a cinematic experience, it definitely falls short.
Possibly the most overrated film of 2018, Roma is a flawless technical achievement that falls short as a complete and engaging motion picture experience, despite its earning 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Foreign Film and Best Picture of the Year.
The film chronicles a year in the life of a young maid named Cleo and the family that she cares for in Mexico during the 1970's. Allegedly this story is based on real life events in the life of writer/director/film editor Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity). The story focuses on young Cleo trying to deal with the fact that she has become pregnant by a cocky young soldier while the family that she works for are dealing with the fact that the father has run off to be another woman. Sadly, only the mother knows the truth, the children think their father is away on business.
Not sure why, but I had a feeling that I was going to be disappointed with this film when I learned that it was distributed by Netflix, a company that seems to be more obsessed with the bottom line than supporting creativity in its most appealing form. Don't get me wrong, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, this film is a textbook on how to put a story on film. I will be shocked if it doesn't win the Oscar for cinematography because the film is absolutely gorgeous to look at...black and white photography that enhanced the beauty of what was being presented. Cinematic photographs at every turn that produce vivid cinematic emotion inside the viewer.
Cuaron also scores in his casting of an unknown in the lead role, which heightened the authenticity of the story. I also loved the actress who played the mother and the nominations both actresses received are deserved. The idea of using a minimal music score is usually something that works in independent films, but this was a rare instance where the lack of music was a detriment to the story not an enhancement.
The utilization of visual motifs totally works here, this is a director who has an innate sense of the visual onscreen, like Boz Luhrman, who will sometimes let substance fall to the wayside in the name of the visual, but unlike Luhrman, I think Cuaron puts a little too much trust in his material here, because it never really engages the viewer the way it should. A must for filmmaking students, but as a cinematic experience, it definitely falls short.