Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Roma

Last night, I finally watched Roma, and while I haven't seen Green Book, let's face it I already have.  White person learns not to be racist by discovering black people are...people.  Got it.  Seen that.

Roma, however, is not like anything I've recently or maybe ever.  It combines absolute mastery of the craft of film making with an expression of love for his childhood in every frame of the movie.  There is something tender and empathic in every scene, despite many of the shots being wide shots and pans.  He eschews that quick-cutting, frenetic film technique for something intimate and meditative.  There is very little soundtrack, beyond the soundtrack of daily living - dogs barking, birds twittering, the music of street noise.  It creates little crescendos of emotion that feel just like real life, and though the plot is slim, it has a narrative propulsion that surprised me.

I still have a few more to see, but I will be surprised if there was a better movie last year.

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