SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 141 - Roma

[europe1]

NOTE to NON-MEMBERS: Interested in joining the SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB? Shoot me a PM for more info!

Here's a quick list of all movies watched by the SMC. Or if you prefer, here's a more detailed examination.

Our Director
Alfonso Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then immediately started to film everything he saw, showing it afterwards to everyone. In his teen years, films were his hobby. Sometimes he said to his mother he would go to a friend's home, when in fact he would go to the cinema. His ambition was to know every theatre in the city. Near his house there were two studios, Studios Churubusco and Studios 212. After finishing school, Cuarón decided to study cinema right away. He tried to study at C.C.C. (Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica) but wasn't accepted because at that time they weren't accepting students under twenty-four years old. His mother didn't support that idea of cinema, so he studied philosophy in the morning and in the afternoon he went to the C.U.E.C. (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos). During that time he met many people who would later become his collaborators and friends. One of them was Luis Estrada. Cuaron also became good friends with Carlos Marcovich and Emmanuel Lubezki. Luis Estrada directed a short called "Vengance is Mine", on which Alfonso and Emmanuel collaborated. The film was in English, a fact which bothered many teachers of the C.U.E.C. such as Marcela Fernández Violante. The disagreement caused such arguments that in 1985, Alfonso was expelled from the university.

During his time studying at C.U.E.C. he met Mariana Elizondo, and with her he had his first son, Jonás Cuarón. After Alfonso was expelled, he thought he could never be a director and so went on to work in a Museum so he could sustain his family. One day, José Luis García Agraz and Fernando CáMara went to the museum and made an offer to Cuarón. They asked him to work as cable person in "La víspera (1982)", a job which was to prove to be his salvation. After that he was assistant director in Garcia Agraz's "Nocaut(1984)", as well as numerous other films.
​

Our Stars​

Yalitza Aparicio

Marina de Tavira

Premise: A year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

Budget: $15 million

Box Office: $2.3 million



Trivia​

(Courtesy of the IMDB)​

* The lengthy delivery scene in the hospital was only shot once. The doctors and nurses were real, not actors, hired to make the scene feel more authentic.

* Alfonso Cuarón decided to shoot on location in Mexico City instead of using a soundstage. This is one reason for the several appearances of airplanes, because according to Cuarón they had a plane passing by every five minutes.

* The film is dedicated to "Libo," who is the family servant the central character was based on.

* Alfonso Cuarón was the only person on set to know the entire script and the direction of the film. Each day, before filming, the director would hand the lines to his cast, attempting to elicit real emotion and shock from his actors. Each actor would also receive contradictory directions and explanations, which meant that there was chaos on set every day. For Cuarón, "that's exactly what life is like: it's chaotic and you can't really plan how you'll react to a given situation".

* According to Alfonso Cuarón, ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are scenes taken out of his memory.

* In 2017 the Cannes Film Festival decided not to let films done exclusively for Netflix or other streaming services participate in the festival, stating that Cannes wants to preserve the traditional way of watching and making films. In 2018 Netflix announced a boycott of the festival, and Roma instead went to the Venice festival. One of the filmmakers that supported Netflix was Alfonso Cuarón. He has stated on several occasions that festivals and academies should appreciate films made for streaming services.


Members: @europe1 @MusterX @Scott Parker 27 @Cubo de Sangre @sickc0d3r @FrontNakedChoke @AndersonsFoot @Tufts @chickenluver @Coolthulu @Yotsuya @jei @LHWBelt @moreorless87 @ArtemV @Bullitt68 @HenryFlower @Nailgun @Rimbaud82 @BeardotheWeirdo @Zer

 

[syct23]

ROMA VICTOR!!!!

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

@DepressedNakedChoke checking in.
Graciously taking time out of my busy schedule of watching conspiracies and eating candy to.. watch Roma.. and eat candy..

Going to try to be extra nice to this movie because I respect @Tufts

Will the Sherdog Movie Club subtitles ever end?

I like the black and white, & the panning shots.

Borras the dog better not die...
They've said his name several times aloud.
And now I have an emotional attachment to him.

I foresee this artsy foreign film posing problems for my child-like attention span..

Ha. Stupid kid didn't know where Quebec was.
Kids are so stupid.

Speaking of me being a kid,
Here's my snack for this movie

Side story:
Recently I was at the corner store buying some of these, and this drugged out guy came in freaking out. First he asked me to show him my nipples outside the store, to which I kindly refused. Then he asked the cashier to see his nipples, and then told the cashier I was trying to steal while he himself was in fact trying to steal. Anyways, he saw I was buying Tootsie Pops and said 'OH SHIT I HAVEN'T HAD THOSE SINCE I WAS A KID'. Hence how I know that I am a child, as the man on LSD, Coke, and Meth proved.

Sorry for derailment,
Back to the movie

Half an hour in, this movie is making me sleepy
But also want to move to Mexico and start a new life...
Certainly a change of pace from last week

Cleaning up the dog poop with a broom?

I do quite like Cleo, though.
She reminds me of a girl I met in Guatemala.

Making out at the movies never seemed comfortable to me.
A girl I know once referred to the top row as "the handjob row"

Awww she's purgnant
I want babies


Oh. The Dad took off. Great.
Whatever happened to loyalty & family?
Fuck that guy.

This movie has the pacing of a sloth

Of course just as I say that an earthquake(I think) endangers the lives of new born babies.

I appreciate the artistic merit of the film but it's not exactly my cup of tea.
I said that as posh as possible.

Stuffed Dogs heads.
Both creepy and adorable.

The background noise and lack of music does give it a unique feel.
Some great still shots as well.

I've felt like tragedy was imminent since the start of this movie.

Me reaching my one hour intermission mark:

Some cool lookin cars in this movie.

Striking shot of an impoverished community
Me:

Wow, just when you thought deadbeat martial arts dad couldn't get any worse.
I've just felt sad for Cleo this whole time.

Depressing movie is depressing.
There have been a few funny parts, but they'e only half funny because the underlying atmosphere of depression remains.

A little bit of civil unrest, eh?
That shot from the second floor glass window of the riots is really cool.

My cat is currently meowing at the window.
Likely at another cat.
He's very handsome, but he's an indoor cat.
All the pretty girl cats from the neighbourhood come around to visit him.
My boy Tetley:



Man. Bad timing for your water to break.
Did Fermin even see Cleo when they ambushed that place?

Full on war in the streets.

I hope Cleo's baby is ok.
She's all alone like drunk mum said =(

Aaaaand it's dead as fuck.
Great. RIP baby.

Ughhh Cleo not wanting to give back the dead baby..
I should have skipped this week..

I almost drowned like these kids when I was in Guatemala.
The ocean is no joke, folks.

Oh I guess she didn't want the dead baby.
So it's all good then.

I give this a slow-artsy-black&white-subtitled-movie / 10
I did feel connected to Cleo but was mostly sad and bored.
Sorry @Tufts ~

@FrontNakedRoma signing off

 

[LHWBelt]

Watched it and it has some beautiful shots. Some of the best I've seen in a while. That said i was bored a good portion of it. The riots were crazy though and that fermin guy is a real piece of shit. Cleo had it really rough and I'm just happy i didn't accidentally watch this with my pregnant wife.

 

[LHWBelt]

@DepressedNakedChoke checking in.
Graciously taking time out of my busy schedule of watching conspiracies and eating candy to.. watch Roma.. and eat candy..

Going to try to be extra nice to this movie because I respect @Tufts

Will the Sherdog Movie Club subtitles ever end?

I like the black and white, & the panning shots.

Borras the dog better not die...
They've said his name several times aloud.
And now I have an emotional attachment to him.

I foresee this artsy foreign film posing problems for my child-like attention span..

Ha. Stupid kid didn't know where Quebec was.
Kids are so stupid.

Speaking of me being a kid,
Here's my snack for this movie

Side story:
Recently I was at the corner store buying some of these, and this drugged out guy came in freaking out. First he asked me to show him my nipples outside the store, to which I kindly refused. Then he asked the cashier to see his nipples, and then told the cashier I was trying to steal while he himself was in fact trying to steal. Anyways, he saw I was buying Tootsie Pops and said 'OH SHIT I HAVEN'T HAD THOSE SINCE I WAS A KID'. Hence how I know that I am a child, as the man on LSD, Coke, and Meth proved.

Sorry for derailment,
Back to the movie

Half an hour in, this movie is making me sleepy
But also want to move to Mexico and start a new life...
Certainly a change of pace from last week

Cleaning up the dog poop with a broom?

I do quite like Cleo, though.
She reminds me of a girl I met in Guatemala.

Making out at the movies never seemed comfortable to me.
A girl I know once referred to the top row as "the handjob row"

Awww she's purgnant
I want babies


Oh. The Dad took off. Great.
Whatever happened to loyalty & family?
Fuck that guy.

This movie has the pacing of a sloth

Of course just as I say that an earthquake(I think) endangers the lives of new born babies.

I appreciate the artistic merit of the film but it's not exactly my cup of tea.
I said that as posh as possible.

Stuffed Dogs heads.
Both creepy and adorable.

The background noise and lack of music does give it a unique feel.
Some great still shots as well.

I've felt like tragedy was imminent since the start of this movie.

Me reaching my one hour intermission mark:

Some cool lookin cars in this movie.

Striking shot of an impoverished community
Me:

Wow, just when you thought deadbeat martial arts dad couldn't get any worse.
I've just felt sad for Cleo this whole time.

Depressing movie is depressing.
There have been a few funny parts, but they'e only half funny because the underlying atmosphere of depression remains.

A little bit of civil unrest, eh?
That shot from the second floor glass window of the riots is really cool.

My cat is currently meowing at the window.
Likely at another cat.
He's very handsome, but he's an indoor cat.
All the pretty girl cats from the neighbourhood come around to visit him.
My boy Tetley:
View attachment 506015


Man. Bad timing for your water to break.
Did Fermin even see Cleo when they ambushed that place?

Full on war in the streets.

I hope Cleo's baby is ok.
She's all alone like drunk mum said =(

Aaaaand it's dead as fuck.
Great. RIP baby.

Ughhh Cleo not wanting to give back the dead baby..
I should have skipped this week..

I almost drowned like these kids when I was in Guatemala.
The ocean is no joke, folks.

Oh I guess she didn't want the dead baby.
So it's all good then.

I give this a slow-artsy-black&white-subtitled-movie / 10
I did feel connected to Cleo but was mostly sad and bored.
Sorry @Tufts ~

@FrontNakedRoma signing off

I appreciate these thoughts, they mostly mirrored mine.

 

[europe1]

So... why is this movie called Roma? @Tufts, help! Heeelp!

(So this is how you seduce girls in Mexico? Hmm fascinating)
I also like how the military-aspect of their training was foreshadowed by the presence of a uniformed man during their drilling. They lure young boys into a Martial Arts School and then turn them into government thugs meant to gun-down protestors. How very prescient.


So this movie is a really fastidious recreation of Mexico at the time. The pop-culture, the daily-to-day existence, the political backdrop, even the onerous sounds of city-life (but no El Santo). But it does all this with the lens of the haves and the have-nots. Cleo's life is an example of his status, privilege and wealth affect our living-conditions.

One iteration of this theme that I really liked was when Sofia came driving home drunk. She staggers out of her vehicle and tells Cleo "We women are always truly alone". Through a spur of the moment, she aims for some sort of feminine solidarity between her and Cleo. And sure, the movie-narrative backs up her claim, and her life has truly turned shit-wards once her husband ditches the family to live a bachelor-lifestyle. But Cleo's predicament is way worse, more precarious, and more impoverishing in means of existence, than hers. It's basically a whole movie about how people are blind to the plight of others, through a rich/poor lens. Cleo has just given birth to a dead baby, but surely she wants to go to the beach with us, right!?

This was a good drama. I liked it, despite its sluggishness to get going. But it's dramatic beats always felt sort-of obvious, somehow. Despite the ostentatiousness manner in which they recreating 60's Mexico, it doesn't really feel like one of those movies that truly sucked you into its world. It's like Cuaron wanted us to see things from Cleo's perspective but stumbled, somehow. Dunno, maybe it's one of those films that will hit me when I allow it to digest a little.


Also, having a house-maid is freaking weird. This is probably just the inner Swede in me talking, but having someone take care of your family and household is just really infantilizing, undignifying, and awkward. It's like an admittance that you aren't competent enough to do so yourself, that you have to rely on others to get through life. The act of treating others like serviles is also plain uncomfortable, like you're not giving them the respect they deserve. Hell, when I was a youth and sleept-ower at friends with an immigrant background, their mom would make us breakfast, and I would think that was strange and uncomfortable (but that's just me being oversensitive).

I do quite like Cleo, though.

You know, Cleo is like something you find in Victorian fiction, the sort of suffering good little Christian archetype. She's servile, non-complaining and earnestly loving despite the deplorability of her situation. Saintly in her suffering, one could almost say.

Though, I suppose there are people really like that.

I like the black and white, & the panning shots.

Hell of a lot of panning shots in this movie. It was like the camera-crew had a mile-long railway off-screen and were just sliding along it.

Stuffed Dogs heads.
Both creepy and adorable.

Oh c'mon. How is that adorable? It's ghastly. That you think so little of a creature that you see no problem with mounting it's decapitated head on a wall as a trinket, a mere ornament of your house.

I'm surprised those people didn't stuff and mount their servants' heads, to be honest.

Did Fermin even see Cleo when they ambushed that place?

For sure. That frozen look. That stagger. Guns don't help when running away from the guilt of abandoning your unborn child.

. That said i was bored a good portion of it. The riots were crazy though and that fermin guy is a real piece of shit.

Yeah. It was one of those movies that took a hell of a time to get going but delivered when it finally arrived at where it wanted to go.

and I'm just happy i didn't accidentally watch this with my pregnant wife.

1: Congratulations!

2: Hot fucking damn you dodged a bullet there!

 

[MusterX]

I'll be back later tonight guys. Today is my daughter's 12th birthday.

 

[LHWBelt]

So... why is this movie called Roma? @Tufts, help! Heeelp!

(So this is how you seduce girls in Mexico? Hmm fascinating)
I also like how the military-aspect of their training was foreshadowed by the presence of a uniformed man during their drilling. They lure young boys into a Martial Arts School and then turn them into government thugs meant to gun-down protestors. How very prescient.


So this movie is a really fastidious recreation of Mexico at the time. The pop-culture, the daily-to-day existence, the political backdrop, even the onerous sounds of city-life (but no El Santo). But it does all this with the lens of the haves and the have-nots. Cleo's life is an example of his status, privilege and wealth affect our living-conditions.

One iteration of this theme that I really liked was when Sofia came driving home drunk. She staggers out of her vehicle and tells Cleo "We women are always truly alone". Through a spur of the moment, she aims for some sort of feminine solidarity between her and Cleo. And sure, the movie-narrative backs up her claim, and her life has truly turned shit-wards once her husband ditches the family to live a bachelor-lifestyle. But Cleo's predicament is way worse, more precarious, and more impoverishing in means of existence, than hers. It's basically a whole movie about how people are blind to the plight of others, through a rich/poor lens. Cleo has just given birth to a dead baby, but surely she wants to go to the beach with us, right!?

This was a good drama. I liked it, despite its sluggishness to get going. But it's dramatic beats always felt sort-of obvious, somehow. Despite the ostentatiousness manner in which they recreating 60's Mexico, it doesn't really feel like one of those movies that truly sucked you into its world. It's like Cuaron wanted us to see things from Cleo's perspective but stumbled, somehow. Dunno, maybe it's one of those films that will hit me when I allow it to digest a little.


Also, having a house-maid is freaking weird. This is probably just the inner Swede in me talking, but having someone take care of your family and household is just really infantilizing, undignifying, and awkward. It's like an admittance that you aren't competent enough to do so yourself, that you have to rely on others to get through life. The act of treating others like serviles is also plain uncomfortable, like you're not giving them the respect they deserve. Hell, when I was a youth and sleept-ower at friends with an immigrant background, their mom would make us breakfast, and I would think that was strange and uncomfortable (but that's just me being oversensitive).




You know, Cleo is like something you find in Victorian fiction, the sort of suffering good little Christian archetype. She's servile, non-complaining and earnestly loving despite the deplorability of her situation. Saintly in her suffering, one could almost say.

Though, I suppose there are people really like that.



Hell of a lot of panning shots in this movie. It was like the camera-crew had a mile-long railway off-screen and were just sliding along it.



Oh c'mon. How is that adorable? It's ghastly. That you think so little of a creature that you see no problem with mounting it's decapitated head on a wall as a trinket, a mere ornament of your house.

I'm surprised those people didn't stuff and mount their servants' heads, to be honest.



For sure. That frozen look. That stagger. Guns don't help when running away from the guilt of abandoning your unborn child.

Yeah. It was one of those movies that took a hell of a time to get going but delivered when it finally arrived at where it wanted to go.



1: Congratulations!

2: Hot fucking damn you dodged a bullet there!

Thanks mate and i really did i watch most of these with her lol. I was bored and she was at work though so i fired it up.

 

[MusterX]

I wanted to like this film, and I wanted to hate it. I hated this film, and, at times, I liked it. I'm very conflicted about this work. I think part of it was that, being an American, I'm not invested emotionally with the political turmoil of 1970's Mexico. On the other hand, I understand the nature of broken relationships and the human condition. Any good story telling must invest the reader or viewer in what is happening and in some cases this film did, and in others it was just unbearably long. At times this felt like a 37 minute short, expanded to two and a half hours.

The cinematography felt good, it felt well thought out and arranged but there is only so much patience a viewer has when they spend the first half hour watching the maid perform cleaning duties. The highlight of the first 45 minutes of the film was Fermin practicing martial arts with a shower rod, completely nude. I was transfixed by his flying penis. It kinda pisses me off. I don't think women react the same way to seeing other nude women like men react to full on unit exposure. Then it occurred to me, that his staff, was his weapon.

After that, stuff happened for, I dunno, for three or four hours, and we get to the premature baby birth of Cleo in which we see her taken from the car, to the hallways of the hospital, to the elevator, to the triage area, and then into emergency surgery. Everything seems like its happening now very rapidly compared to the 47 scenes that led up to this moment. This is a moment in the film when I felt invested in Cleo and I wanted that baby to breath. I believed that baby was going to breath.

I felt there was a nice juxtaposition when the mom took the kids and Cleo to the beach and then told the kids that their father wasn't coming home. As the kids are slumped over eating ice cream to ease the pain of their familial defeat, a wedding is taking place in the background. One family ending as another begins. Birth and death, birth and death. We have that bit of drama near the end where Sofi and Paco are going to drown in the ocean and Cleo, who can't swim, saves them. Soaked in grief, she confesses that she didn't want her daughter to be born but at the same time, we see that she is a part of an extended family that itself was broken by the father and is reforming as something new.

That damn plane confused me. We see it when these guys are training martial arts.

Super fly Stuca does his pose and we see the plane fly through his arms.

And we see it at a political rally.

and here...

Then at the end of the film as Cleo climbs the stairs we see the plane again. Damn you Roma plane that I can't understand, damn you to hell.

 

[Bullitt68]

Roma makes for three SMC movies in a row where I don't really have much to say. Especially in this case since those who've posted before me have already hit the nail on the head.

I give this a slow-artsy-black&white-subtitled-movie / 10
I did feel connected to Cleo but was mostly sad and bored.

Watched it and it has some beautiful shots. Some of the best I've seen in a while. That said i was bored a good portion of it.

At times this felt like a 37 minute short, expanded to two and a half hours.

I hate movies that leave me asking the question "Why did I watch this?" and that's exactly what I was left asking when the credits started rolling.

It seemed like Cuarón watched Umberto D. and Jeanne Dielman in quick succession and tried to make his own Mexican version. Except he didn't have anything to say. What was the point of the film, or of anything that happened in it?

(So this is how you seduce girls in Mexico? Hmm fascinating)

It's definitely not a good sign when the only redeeming quality of an artsy-fartsy movie that takes itself super cereal is the unintentional hilarity of a scene where a guy does the 1970s Mexican version of "I train UFC" and proceeds to show his Napoleon Dynamite "great skills" bare ass naked.

Just when you think it doesn't get any worse than the morons who shadowbox in front of the mirror at the gym, this pendejo ups the ante

One iteration of this theme that I really liked was when Sofia came driving home drunk. She staggers out of her vehicle and tells Cleo "We women are always truly alone". Through a spur of the moment, she aims for some sort of feminine solidarity between her and Cleo.

I think you're being generous here. That mom was a bitch who treated Cleo like shit and who took out her own frustrations and weaknesses on those around her, from chewing Cleo out to slapping her son. She wasn't aiming for anything in that moment, and she sure as fuck wasn't aiming for feminine solidarity with Cleo. She was just downloading more of her shit on whoever happened to be there, and it happened to be Cleo.

It's basically a whole movie about how people are blind to the plight of others, through a rich/poor lens. Cleo has just given birth to a dead baby, but surely she wants to go to the beach with us, right!?

Now we're on-point.

Despite the ostentatiousness manner in which they recreating 60's Mexico, it doesn't really feel like one of those movies that truly sucked you into its world. It's like Cuaron wanted us to see things from Cleo's perspective but stumbled, somehow. Dunno, maybe it's one of those films that will hit me when I allow it to digest a little.

Like I said: It's like he watched Umberto D. and Jeanne Dielman and then tried to do his own version, only it was a hollow exercise rather than a profound intellectual/emotional experience.

Stuffed Dogs heads.
Both creepy and adorable.

Oh c'mon. How is that adorable? It's ghastly. That you think so little of a creature that you see no problem with mounting it's decapitated head on a wall as a trinket, a mere ornament of your house.

 

[MusterX]

It's definitely not a good sign when the only redeeming quality of an artsy-fartsy movie that takes itself super cereal is the unintentional hilarity of a scene where a guy does the 1970s Mexican version of "I train UFC" and proceeds to show his Napoleon Dynamite "great skills" bare ass naked.

Just when you think it doesn't get any worse than the morons who shadowbox in front of the mirror at the gym, this pendejo ups the ante

So hilarious and true. You need the extended incredulous gif to do that scene credit. I picture this is DC as he watches it.

 

[MusterX]

So this movie is a really fastidious recreation of Mexico at the time. The pop-culture, the daily-to-day existence, the political backdrop, even the onerous sounds of city-life (but no El Santo). But it does all this with the lens of the haves and the have-nots. Cleo's life is an example of his status, privilege and wealth affect our living-conditions.

I felt there was also the repeated idea of birth and rebirth, or birth and death. A few examples follow.

1. When they were at the party celebrating New Year's eve, it was the birth of a new year, and the death was the forest catching on fire.

2. When Cleo was shopping for a crib it was for the birth of her baby, the death in that scene was a shooting victim.

3. The dog heads on the wall even implies that once one dies, you get another.

4. When the mom takes the kids and Cleo to the beach she confesses in the restaurant that "dad isn't coming back home", which is the death of their marriage/family, then Cleo saves the kids from drowning in the ocean and herself becomes a part of the extended family. So we get a dual birth/death here because its the death of the marriage, but the birth of the new family unit, including Cleo, but also Cleo confesses she didn't want the baby, which died, just after saving the kids from drowning to give them another chance at life. During this particular sequence we also get a very awesome shot of the kids sadly eating ice-cream after they found out their parents are being divorced while in the background of the scene a wedding is taking place. Fuck, wish I could find a pic of that.

5. Lastly, I think there is also some birth/rebirth, birth/death messages to do with the political climate of the time but I don't know what was going on in Mexico in the 1970's well enough to point it out. Obviously, one such example was the protestors (a new beginning or change) and the ones paid to kill them.

 

[Zer]

I tried watching this last night but after like 10 minutes I was like 'It's one of those films' and I wasn't in the mood. Not that I'm saying I got a poor first impression, it's just it seems like something I need to watch properly instead keeping one eye on it while I'm jacking off to internet pron at 3am which is how I usually watch my movies.

 

[Yotsuya]

I liked Roma a lot mostly. The drifting pace was very nice and cinematography too. There were few very genuine moments of kindness and friendship that worked for me. Cloe giving birth was a brutal scene. The beach rescue on the other hand was doing it’s best to provide another classic Cuarón cathartic climax, but it felt very rushed. (I mean those kids nearly drowning.) Still, I liked the ambivalent ending a lot.

Professor Zovek tried to show the bo staff machos what traditional martial arts is all about. Too bad his movie didn’t come out until 1972 and it was 1971 in Roma. Maybe Fermin had given his teachings more respect had he witnessed Zovek in action. I’ve seen the movie and it is dope!

Spoiler

 

[Yotsuya]

Also, having a house-maid is freaking weird. This is probably just the inner Swede in me talking, but having someone take care of your family and household is just really infantilizing, undignifying, and awkward. It's like an admittance that you aren't competent enough to do so yourself, that you have to rely on others to get through life. The act of treating others like serviles is also plain uncomfortable, like you're not giving them the respect they deserve. Hell, when I was a youth and sleept-ower at friends with an immigrant background, their mom would make us breakfast, and I would think that was strange and uncomfortable (but that's just me being oversensitive).

Could be partly a generation thing too. My mother worked as a housemaid in late 60’s when she was about the same age as Cleo. She moved from the countryside to city and had no education. She had only good things to say about the family. They were upper middle class and cultured. She picked her lifelong love for classical music from them. (Her own parents were old school christians and other than religious music was shunned.)

 

[Tufts]

I am watching the movie tonight. Sorry for the delay, had a bit of a puppy issue, and when my pups are not well, my brain shuts down and this is how I feel about everything else:

Now that Jalapeño is on the mend, I will watch and will pay close attention and respond to everyone tomorrow and over the weekend! Please forgive my tardiness....

 

[moreorless87]

As a non Netflixs subscriber I'd guess I'm going to have to wait to watch this although I admit I'm not entirely sure about my expectations.

I'v no problem with slow atmospheric dramas, Ida from a few years ago for example was IMHO excellent but still I think in its own style it was quite tightly focused. The comments on this make it seem like its a combination of wider political events and attempts at random artiness.

I'v seen a few people comment that the family environment seems to show a lack of self awareness from Cuaron as well in terms of looking at the master/servant situation, maybe because that was the environment he was brought up in?

 

[Tufts]

Going to try to be extra nice to this movie because I respect @Tufts

 

[Tufts]

Do those have that weird American chewy stuff in them...tootsies? If so, you need

 

[Bullitt68]

I'v seen a few people comment that the family environment seems to show a lack of self awareness from Cuaron as well in terms of looking at the master/servant situation, maybe because that was the environment he was brought up in?

If I'm understanding the charge correctly, then I'd say that it's misguided. He wasn't commenting on anything, so there's nothing that he missed or was unaware of in so commenting...because there was no comment. As my post indicates, that's a charge that's perhaps debatable but at least valid on its face (and I obviously think that it's 100% valid and a legitimate complaint to be leveled at the dull and pointless film). To say that there was a lack of self-awareness in the film, though, would seem to be an indicator of a political bias, i.e. because he didn't offer a commentary on subjugation/privilege/insert buzzword he's therefore unaware; it couldn't possibly be that he had different interests/intentions in making the film...