Roma

A city of palaces

Well, the 91^st academy awards have passed by with no major upsets. Best picture went to Peter Farrelly's Green Book, surprising very few. Black Panther cleaned up the technical prowess categories, and Spike Lee won his first true Oscar in the form of best adapted screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. It seems that films about race are now more at the forefront of the public conscience than before, and directors are finding ways to tell those stories in a way that everyone can engage with. People with no frame of reference can now be immersed in worlds and stories from other races. And this is a good thing, to be sure.

Roma is film deeply rooted in the culture and past of its director Alfonso Cuarón, the title being the common name for the Mexico City neighborhood that he grew up in as well as the one in which the film takes place. The film offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of Mexicans during the 1970s. It is not about Cuarón however, it is about Cleo, a native Mexican who works as a live in maid for a wealthy family. The story calmly wanders from beat to beat, with Cleo not so much being the main character so much as our primary point of reference for the story, we go where she goes. She does eventually become the center of the story, but that eventually passes in favor of the other stories that surround her, each one full of details that can't help but elicit empathy and your attention.

But the film's greatest strength is its cinematography. It didn't win in the Best Cinematography category for nothing. Every single shot is perfect from start to finish. The best kind of cinematography is one where cuts and transitions can pass you by without disturbing you or breaking your immersion, and Roma never breaks or disturbs with its editing. Mostly because there aren't that many cuts. So much of the film is done in long, uncut takes that really show off how good Cuarón is with a camera. More often than not, I wouldn't notice its was a long take until it had been going on for at least a minute or two. And every shot is so perfectly composed and full of little details that your eyes will wander around the frame trying to take it all in.

And every scene oozes this deep, infectious nostalgia. I have never even been to the same time zone as Mexico, but I could still feel the deep love that Cuarón has for it. But the film does not shy away from dealing with the darker sides of life in 70's Mexico. We are shown the slums and the poverty, as well as the affluence and haciendas. Little details like street vendors selling toys, different foods on tables and posters on walls all create densely packed images that can only come from Cuarón living inside them as a child. One scene in particular takes place on the day of an infamous protest, and the sheer scale of it is enough to take your breath away before you consider the massive logistics and effort required to make it happen.

In short, Roma is a fascinating look into the kind of Mexico we aren't often shown. The film is a cinematic masterpiece, let down only by a story that can at times stretch itself a little to thin, but not so much as to lose your wrapped attention.