Review: Roma

A new Alfonso Cuaron film excites multiple groups within the film industry. His back catalogue have impressed the mainstream audiences as well as the schooled experts.

Whether or not I have liked his past work, from a technical standpoint, it is always of a high quality.
I have come to terms with my disappointment for Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by reminding myself of the good stuff about it, Children Of Men is a really enjoyable sci-fi drama and Gravity I feel is his masterpiece and one of the greatest films of the current decade.

With this new release, we have a distribution with Netflix plus a very small cinematic release. Sadly, it's the small screen for me and I was fearing that a part of my experience would be lost as Cuaron's films are certainly to be appreciated at the cinema more than anywhere else.

It certainly has everything you expect in a Cuaron film. It has those long impressive takes that perfectly shot and you can that every shot has been thoroughly prepared in making sure it looks perfect. But I think for the majority of the film, that is all I was noticing.
There is a story in here, but it took me a while to fully get into it. It was probably until a few moving moments in the final act that I fully got what this story is trying to tell. But in the end, the story felt more like it just Cuaron and his team documenting a real-life family during a typical mundane time in their life. That will work from some people, but not always with me. But I will still give props to the Mexican cast, especially the central character played by Yalitza Aparicio.

The film is clearly a technical marvel. It's shot beautifully, the combination of the long tracking shots and the impressive sound design made it quite the atmospheric experience. Some of the scenes that truly show the scale of this production was impressive to watch and a shame that this never got a wide big-screen release.

But for me, the story and characters did not engage me enough to be totally blown away by the film. I like the themes, but the execution of it never felt jaw-dropping and an aspect to this film that had to spread the word about. Maybe not seeing it on the big screen could be the main reason.

However since seeing it, the more time I think about it, I seem to appreciate it more and more. So it while it is on the cusp of an exceptional rating, I might sneak it over that line in a few years time.

Rating: 7/10