Roma: Movie Review

Making the mundane significant. Making every day life standout - full of emotion and character. These are the things that make "Roma" a profoundly moving experience. It's not your typical film in every sense of the word and that's the simple reason why it's so beautiful.

Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. But when she gets pregnant and her employer's husband decides to leave his family, we get a vivid portrait of domestic, political, social turmoils of the 1970s in Mexico.

If we could pin one touch point that made "Roma" memorable be, it would be its cinematography. No, it's not because it's in black and white but it was how Alfonso Cuarón worked the camera in each scene. Each shot literally took its time to show the scene and the sceneries and people behind it fully. May it be a room in a house, a driveway, a village, or a bustling street in the city, each one was crafted with so much detail and so much life. It was as if audiences are seeing a video shot in real-life and not a movie production or set. "Roma" also focuses on a specific time frame. It doesn't really have a clear end by the time the credits roll. Its narrative structure was unconventional but it was wonderfully paced and accentuates the authenticity you get when watching and experiencing the film. It could be a story that can be interpreted as overcoming prejudices and challenges but it is also so much more than that. Behind the main are backdrops with subtle hints of the political, familial, and psychological aspects of Mexico back that was subtle but chilling when it needed to be and just like in real life, the craziness of the world typically avoids to affect us individuals until we ourselves are the ones in the middle of the fray. Of course, the film was heavily defined by its main lead women characters and the poignant but powerful performances by the actresses behind them. While society may seem to downplay the role these women had in family, society and in life as a while, each came out totally more mature and more powerful than the men in their lives that only brought pain and chaos.

Rating: 5 reels





Why you should watch it:
- a literal snapshot of life in Mexico back in the 1970s
- the mundane and every day transformed into something so moving and powerful

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the unconventional narrative may leave those that desire a clear ending disappointed