Arguably the most high profile film of this year's fest, Alfonso Cuaron's Roma is somehow dreamy yet realistic, characters from a time gone by yet still somehow real and alive in front of our eyes. A heartfelt story of a Mexican family and their maid during turbulent times in the 70s, it's easy to tell that it's semi-autobiographical for Cuaron. The detailing and genuineness with which the setting and the people are portrayed, only a person who has had a close interaction with them could tell it with this amount of authority and compassion.
Co-produced, co-edited, photographed, written and directed by the genius that he is, Cuaron has such complete control over every aspect of the film that it comes together with the smoothness that he intended. The black and white is crisp, punchy and vibrant all at once. The editing, which seems maybe too leisurely at the beginning, starts to make so much sense as the film progresses that you retroactively start loving those portions as well. These are, after all, real people in a real family. Something momentous doesn't need to happen in every scene. Sometimes, all of the family sitting together and laughing is good enough.
Roma also features 3 of the best sequences of not just MAMI but of all 2018 cinema: the furniture store, the hospital delivery and the beach waves scenes. Even if you put these scenes aside, this is a film by a director who is not just at the peak of his craft but also mature enough to allow himself to be emotionally vulnerable time after time, film after film. Roma will be out on Netflix soon enough but I feel lucky enough to be one of the very few to have caught it on the big screen, as it deserves to be.
Day 6
Day 4
Day 3
Day 2
Day 1
