OVP: Roma (2018)

Film: Roma (2018)
Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Oscar History: 10 nominations/3 wins (Best Picture, Director*, Actress-Yalitza Aparicio, Supporting Actress-Marina de Tavira, Cinematography*, Foreign Language Film-Mexico*, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

We are now 27 days out from the Oscars ceremony, and I am sitting on a lot of 2018 reviews, particularly for Oscar-nominated films.  I have learned from experience that if I don't have these done by the ceremony, they are probably never becoming public, so I'm going to goal myself to have at least one 2018 film reviewed every day until the ceremony, and we're going to start with the Best Picture nominees that I'm missing.  Roma felt like the easiest choice of where to start in part because it was the (co)-frontrunner for the most nominations with ten, and also because it is my favorite of the eight films selected for Best Picture.  While I'm still deciding what my ultimate favorite film of 2018 is (the Top 10 is here), Roma is going to be my #1 of Oscar's picks, and there's a very specific reason why, which we'll get to right now.

(Spoilers Ahead) It's hard to put "spoilers" on a film like Roma, mostly because it's hard to claim that Roma has a proper plot-it's more a mood piece, an autobiographical one at that, from Cuaron about his early life in Mexico, centered around Cleo (Aparicio), a fictional version of his maid.  Cleo works in an upper-middle class household in strife, with Sofia (de Tavira) in a crumbling marriage to her philandering husband Antonio (Grediaga).  The film follows as Cleo, who is pregnant having gotten knocked up by an absentee father Fermin (Guerrero), who has joined a radical member of the group The Hawks, comes to understand her world.  The two women are connected through the men that abandoned them, but the film never strays from the reality of the economic advantages of Sofia compared to Cleo, and while it isn't explicit or expositional about Cleo's struggles, they are always front-of-mind for even the most distracted of movie patrons.

Roma is special not because this is a new story, or even because of the performances.  De Tavira is the best in the cast, and while she & Aparicio are both strong players in Cuaron's vision, the Academy Award nominations feel a bit of a stretch (though it'll be cool to see both at the ceremony)-giving them these nominations at the expense of someone like Toni Collette in Hereditary feels a bridge too far.  No, what makes this movie special is the specific, film-adoring care that Cuaron brings behind the camera.  Serving as writer, producer, director, cinematographer, and editor, Cuaron's passion is on full-display here as he carefully crafts each scene, each tale, with the beauty of a Bergman or a Fellini.

Honestly-Roma somehow manages to be both gargantuan and meticulous.  I thankfully saw it on a big-screen (if you get this chance, please do so as well as it plays better than it will even on the most advanced of home theater systems), and he finds beauty in the most mundane of home experiences.  The warm lighting in the home as he spirals around, finding different miniature stories in each room (when the children start to claim their bedrooms during a move) is so fantastic, and there's a breathy, marvelous care that he gives to, say, the persistent washing of the garage or Cleo saving one of the children from drowning.  You feel the immediacy of the camera and these people onscreen.  It helps that he's hired actors that were completely unknown to me for the major parts, making them seem less famous stars & more real people, but it's Cuaron behind the camera that earns the praise here.  He has, since he first broke out as a director to follow in the mid-90's, continually found shocking new ways to improve his craft and tell a story with great care.  How he comes back from Roma is anyone's guess, as something so personal, raw, and haunting would stand as a towering achievement in even the best of director's canons.