Roma
What’s the story?: The story of a maid (newcomer Yalitza Aparicio) to an upper-middle-class family living in Mexico City in the 1970s.
It’s been four years since Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón won the Academy Award for Best Director on the Sandra Bullock space adventure, Gravity. Since then, he’s been developing a semi-autobiographical story about the woman who raised him, shot in black-and-white and entirely in Spanish with an amateur cast. The finished product, Roma, has been blowing critics away with its heartfelt story about a maid trying to deal with her own personal struggles as well as doing her daily job. Everything, from the cinematography – coordinated by Cuarón himself – to the Oscar-caliber performance from Aparicio, Roma is considered a serious contender, if not the de facto winner, of the Best Foreign Language Film.
The only issue is Roma is set to premiere on Netflix, an unprecedented move for a serious Oscar contender. Many have said a film like this must be seen in theaters and Netflix is preparing to mount a theatrical campaign for Roma that will hopefully pay off better than their previous attempt to get Beasts of No Nation an Oscar. Those two movies couldn’t be more different, though, and Roma is enchanting audiences left and right. As one of the few critics who hasn’t seen it yet, I’m ready.