Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)

It's doubtful whether Alfonso Cuarón went out seeking a wide international audience with a black and white recounting of the environment that he grew up in, a socially divided and politically troubled Mexico City of 1970, but he got one anyway and an Oscar to boot. And it's well deserved. The story is a slow burner, as we follow a patient young maid go about her chores in a white middle-class family, but the lack of histrionics (or coaxing soundtrack, for that matter) serves to slowly draw us in, until the final third, which becomes quite gut-wrenching. When added to unaffected acting and photography which is mostly restrained, yet suddenly luminous, the overall effect is a beguiling one and gets a plethora of ideas across under the radar that keep working on you long after the credits have rolled.

8/10