Roma (2018)

Sad and beautiful Roma may well be the best movie of 2018. While produced for Netflix director Alfonso Cuarón was able to negotiate a limited theatrical release, which enabled the film to qualify for its 10 Oscar nominations. I was fortunate to be able to see the movie on the big screen and if you are able to that is the way I would recommend you see it. Cuarón's shots are rich and detailed and can best be appreciated in a larger format. Filmed in a crisp black and white this is a near documentary recreation of Mexico in the early 1970's. There are scenes in the film that if you had taken a frame from them, shown it to me and told me it was an award winning photograph from the era I would have believed you. There are so many moments in this film that are so beautiful and so real that you just feel transported, it's like you are actually seeing the time and place portrayed. No doubt that is in part because many of these moments are taken from the memories of director Cuarón, the film being based loosely on his childhood in the Roma section of Mexico City. The stakes here are not those we associate with the directors earlier work, it is not about junior wizards, or astronauts, or the fate of the human race, rather it is about the trials and tribulations of regular people, of family both biologically and emotionally. It is not in a hurry, it may take some patience to start with, but if you give it a chance it can be a truly moving and profound emotional journey. ****