Roma [Sub: Eng]

Alfonso Cuaron's new film, "Roma," gives you so much to see in each new vignette, in every individual composition, in fact, that a second viewing becomes a pleasurable necessity rather than a filmgoing luxury.

Alive in a way that few movies are, "Roma" is a sumptuous piece of filmmaking, a gorgeous look at life on a grand scale told through the prism of one family.

Narratively, not a lot happens during the opening 60-70 minutes, but Cuaron is marinating us so that later events have an uncommonly strong impact.

Cuarón's film is quotidian and extraordinary at the same time. It is about change and how we adapt and grow. It is about love and sometimes the lack of it. It is a rapturous magnum opus, that is heartbreaking, devastating, and life affirming all at once.

It is the clarity of Cuarón's eye, and the sea-like sway of his remembrance, that compel you to trust the tale he tells.

In the end, the film belongs to Aparicio, whose unmannered performance gives Roma an extra dimension of poetic realism.

Sometimes this feels like artifice, but the emotions are real enough, and Cuaron's tribute to Cleo, and to women like her, is heartfelt.

Childhood memories are powerful markers of identity and experiences; thanks to"Roma"for evoking such while one is unaware, as it works magic in creating new imagery to sustain them.

While the film portrays the larger picture of Mexico's sociopolitical issues, above all else, it's a personal movie.

This is an exceptional movie, powerful and stark, and beautiful.

Cuaron's signature long takes immerse the viewer in this environment, the camera slowly panning to drink in the details of this world he's recreated from his memory.

...the vast majority of movie-goers will not find Roma accessible at all...another "critic" movie that applauds abstract art and serves in-part as Cuaron hero-worship.