Roma: True Art in
black and white.
Here’s my review on
the multi award winning film Roma. I am a big fan of Alfonso Cuaron’s previous
work and this film does not disappoint. Beautifully directed and taking the
lead in the cinematography, Alfonso produced one of the most gorgeous pieces of
film footage I’ve ever seen.
The black and white choice in my opinion
representing the polar extremes of the lead character who views her outlook on
the world as black and white, right and wrong. This combined with long one shot scenes that
built unyielding tension that then often switched to many camera shots in quick succession kept the viewer restless and uneasy.
The story evolves
around a white privileged family in Mexico who’s children are raised by a
Mexican au pair from whose point of view we see most of the film. The stark
juxtaposition of the two classes and quality of life were made most apparent
when the two women’s story lines were so similar in tragedy and traumatic circumstances .
Having said all
that, this style of film is not what I jump out of bed and run to the cinema
for. In fact if truth be told I only watched this film after it won best
picture and even then I couldn’t help thinking ‘ah shit, I guess I’ve got to
watch this now.’ In my opinion there are films made for entertainment and films
made for art and this was most certainly the latter, and whilst I’m happy that
a film in a foreign language is doing so well at the academy awards (especially
being Mexican in the current Trumpy climate) it doesn’t fill me with excitement, so I probably won’t be watching it again.
As it’s on Netflix and
has the acclaim that it does this is a firm recommendation from me. I would
give this film a 8.1/10 because as I said as much as I appreciate the artistry
behind this film I can’t go as far as to say I really enjoyed it as there were
long stylistic sequences that left me a little cold.
Some exciting news
tagged onto the end of this review is we’ve got our teaser trailer for our
upcoming The Reel Easy Podcast. Please follow the link below, have a listen and
let us know what you think!
I’ve been Christopher
Whitmore, thank you for reading and listening.
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