"Roma" (2018)

Right up front, something needs to be said. If you are the kind of guy who is embarrassed in a locker room full of guys changing clothes, or if you are the kind of woman who finds the statue of David offensive, this film may not be for you. Or, you might just need to avert your eyes for a scene. For some reason a character decides to do a martial art routine in the all-together. Why doesn’t he do it in his underwear? Who knows?

Aside from that potential embarrassment, this film is a wonderful, poignant story of a maid in Mexico in the early seventies. It is one of those stories where the plot is less an intense story and more of a meditative day-to-day examination. But it is amazing to behold. The cinematography is beautiful. And there are several scenes that are simply beautiful examples of cinema at its best as an artform. The dad parking the car, the outdoor martial arts lesson, and the Tlatelolco Massacre scene are all among the standouts.

But the two sequences that make Roma a tour-de-force are the delivery and the beach rescue. They are both jaw-dropping in the way they are acted and directed. Coming near the end of the film, they put Roma over the top and took it from a great film to the best of 2018 in my view.

The film starts and ends with planes flying overhead, and throughout the film more planes are seen. There are several interpretations of these planes, including the meaning that Cuaron gives them. But for me, they are a reminder of the fact that every-day, ordinary life is full of moments that transcend the ordinary. There is deep meaning in everyone’s life and the things we live through and remember have impact and repercussions all around us.