Waching daily Jan 1 2019

hey guys it's Cory from CoryBakerfilmmaker.com and I just saw Roma

written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron so when I first for the movie reviews

that I've done here this one I watched at home at the OTA

studios here deep high above the 110 freeway in Los Angeles California and

watched on Netflix didn't have the studio experience there

didn't have the movie experience just watched it all here on the couch with

Rachel and Rob and Roxy and it was I while I probably would have preferred to

see it in the theater because it's so epic and grand and and sensational it it

it played fine on Netflix and was actually pretty good for me because it's

two and a half hour long movie so being able to like an hour and a half in our

20 minutes and just taking a little break walking away from the whole thing

and you know sort of letting the palette cleanse a little bit before the second

half of the movie was actually really good for me I would recommend as I would

for almost anything that you watch on any movie you watch on TV even at home

do your best to make sure that it's an the best possible version the best

possible viewing experience we wanted to we turned off the Christmas tree turned

off all the lights just put a backlight behind the TV we have the sound system

it's a good nice TV so it was a wonderful viewing experience without any

kind of problems and that's that's exactly what you want from a movie like

Romo so Romo follows the story of Cleo who is a maid for like this middle

upper-class family living in Mexico City and for a good that I'll tell you this

this movie takes a long while to get going it it feels like you're sort of

living within the the atmosphere more than you are living

within the plot or living within a story to be told but as the movie progresses

the the waiting that you do earlier the the contemplation that you are putting

on on you know extended long takes and stuff like that it really rounds into

form and it becomes it's it's worthy of it and sometimes when I'm watching

movies as I'm watching them I start making calculations as to what the

director is trying to do here like what is he trying to express and why is this

why is this so methodical why is it taking why are we on like the so the

opening shot of the movie is of water going across the bricks in the driveway

and you know it's three minutes long four minutes long something like that

and immediately you start saying like all right why are we staying on the shot

why are we staying here obviously the credits are playing behind or playing in

front of it but it's a rather long static shot and then the water starts

coming in the water starts going over the breaks and in the reflection of the

water on the bricks we can see the world opening up and we can see the plane

flying by which is a big thing that a nice touchstone throughout the movie is

the planes flying above and pretty early on I realized that this is all sort of

setting up your ability to to really admire the scenes that will be coming

later there are a lot of scenes that happen throughout this movie that are

all on these long single takes so there's a family discussion that happens

at dinner at one point and the camera is set up sort of like you know they're at

a restaurant so all of our all the characters we care about are sitting

around a table and what would appear to be like the next table over is where the

camera is looking in on the conversation and it

sort of sets up like you're watching this from afar and then there's another

scene later on I don't want to give away too many spoilers on this because anyone

can watch it at any time and I don't want to like ruin the defund but there's

there's a scene in the hospital later in the movie which is soul-crushing

and you're watching from it's just that the the whole take probably takes you

know three four or five minutes something like that where it's just on

the side of the hospital bed and you can sort of see everything that's going on

around it and it's I in a completely different way it sort of reminded me of

when I saw her with the Dragon Tattoo and there was a very long very hard

collage rape scene in that movie but it was all done on one single long take

where it's like you were sitting in the room watching it and quarrels ability to

translate these moments these cinematic moments into sort of putting you into

the situation gives you a it's it's really it's it's a masterclass on on how

to to raise tension and to make the audience feel what you want them to feel

and it's shockingly good another great thing about this movie is there is not

anybody in it that almost anyone would really know so the the lead playing Cleo

led a proper ratio is she she's never done anything before she has no credit

TB other than Roma but she does a masterful job she does a tremendously

great job and I feel like it's not the way in which the universe carries itself

in this movie allows her to just try and be as natural as possible and this

this is gonna be difficult for even our best actors but it's it's real

especially in this movie it is so she just seems like we're it feels like a

documentary we're just watching the story play out like we just happened to

have cameras running in this mid 70s Mexico City and I can't imagine that the

SAG Awards or the Academy are going to nominate her or give her an award

because that would be kind of offensive to all the all the trained actors who

have put in amazing performances this year but she was she was on a level all

by herself and as a first timer it was just incredibly well done and it really

I think if anything this whole the whole of Roma speaks to what an incredible

filmmaker Quran is from start to end because every little bit of it is

masterful he shot this movie himself so he was his own DP on this one as well as

ready and directing it and editing it so it was a full it was the The Full Monty

for the filmmaker but it was so like every little bit just has this touches

on it the production design is incredible the

the the things that we see in the frame are just like there's a there's a scene

where there's a forest fire and everyone's running into the forest to

try and put out the fire and the flames the the the way that the people are

really sort of gathered around the flames is is hauntingly beautiful and

it's it's the type of thing that like that's what a great production designer

does that's what an incredible team around you allows you to do that allows

you to set up this universe point the camera at it and get it all in and it's

it's III I think for any filmmakers out there it's a must watch it's it's

absolutely beautiful one last thought before I

depart so this story is deeply personal to Quran the the kid by the name of Paco

in the in the movie is supposed to be Quran this was his life and the he's

sort of writing a love letter in film to the maid who helped raise him and by

putting it in her perspective as opposed to his you get to sort of get this whole

complete picture of how a thankless and how incredible her life was even though

she never really gets the no point in the movie does she get the fulfillment

of it all like it if if we would have put this movie from the perspective of

Paco looking up on it I think it would have been a completely different film

staying with Cleo and staying on her reactions is everything and it's one

could say that the the story the plot might be lacking a little bit but it's

it's a type of film that once you let it I I didn't record this right away so we

watched it on Saturday I'm recording this on Tuesday I've had a couple days

to sort of think about how I feel about this movie and with each passing day I

find it more and more brilliant and the the choices that were made along the way

are incredible and even though there isn't a it's not you know film with car

chases and shootouts and everything like that it's it's it just speaks so point

Lily plently to how Quarren feels about this woman and the sacrifices she made

so that him and his family could live a better life and I've it's it's like

being able to read people's love letters it's it's so touching

donde esta leader board this is the first time since doing these reviews

that I have watched a movie at home so right up there home Netflix going on

to the movie leaderboard so I love this movie I really do

all around or just all star performances by not just the cast but the crew and

Quran specifically it's so hard to like exactly figure out how to properly rate

something like this because it's not it's like looking at you know

Michelangelo's and then going to a Picasso because it's it's almost a

different thing than other movies that you get but in in its own way and its

own specialty it is more beautiful than you would expect

so for Roma I give an eight point eight it'll be number two on the leaderboard

now and really it's it's an incredible piece I recommend that everyone see it

if you're a filmmaker though especially you have to you have to just see what he

did with this it's it's it's a masterpiece by Quran like and sometimes

when you you could see that this is sort of like a passion project for him and

that he is coming from a very particular place with it but and sometimes when you

give filmmakers just too much leeway to be able to create it can be difficult

sometimes you need a daddy to like string it in a little bit just to make

it make it right but then in this one he's just he's in the class all by

himself and is an absolute must sing anyway that's it for me if you want more

of me you can go to my website Cory dick a filmmaker comm facebook-dot-com

forward-slash Cory Baker at legend cd5 on Twitter and Instagram

like I had said in the last review I will be home for the Christmas holidays

I will be absolutely trying to see some movies while I'm home and do some

reviews on them whether or not they will post this coming Thursday

prior to New Year's Eve is questionable but there will be new movies new

theaters a whole bunch of great stuff for you to enjoy starting in 2019 yeah

that's it if you have anything you want me to say just send it along social

media comment below like this video if you enjoyed it and yeah I guess I'll be

seeing you in 2019 so adios