Roma

First Hit: Outside of the beautiful black and white photography and languid movement of the story, I left the theater with little.

This is a personal story. It is one from Director Alfonso Cuaron about his youth and for the person who raised him. Cuaron, raised in Mexico, opens the film with Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) cleaning up a large home in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City.

Cleo is one of two live-in housemaids for Sofia (Marina de Tavira) and Antonio (Fernando Grediaga), the mother, and mostly absentee father of four children. Cleo cares about the house and loves the children.

She meets a young man Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) who is part of a martial arts group. They spend intimate time together and she gets pregnant. He doesn’t want anything to do with a child and walks away from the relationship.

With Antonio deciding to leave his family, Sofia trying to hold the family together, and Cleo pregnant, the film drops in and out of the stories while framing each of the shots in very well framed sets.

The beach scene, the scene where Cleo visits Fermin’s martial arts class, and the last hospital scene are extremely touching and encapsulate the power of choices and situations of consequence.

Aparicio is excellent as Cleo. Her quiet demeanor and steadfast devotion to the family were wonderfully portrayed. Tavira as the mother was good. The moments of giving up and the moments of taking charge were subtle, yet palpable. Grediaga was OK in his small but pivotal role. The scene of him parking the car in the garage was wonderfully shot. Guerrero was strong as the boyfriend who disowned his relationship with Cleo. Cuaron created a powerfully visual film, but I had difficulty caring about the film in the end.

Overall: This movie seemed like a creation of love, although the audience to feel it might be small.

Gravity

First Hit: An absolutely Oscar nominee and winner worthy film – amazing beyond belief.

When I'm sitting in a theater, I don’t often get overwhelmingly suspense filled, but this film put me there from the opening moment.

From the beginning this film transports the audience into space and keeps you there till the very end. I strongly suspect adding today’s 3D visuals added to the experience of weightlessness, helplessness, and amazingness of the story and film. What this also means is that I recommend that you see this film in 3D.

Briefly, Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is an obsessed detailed oriented scientist. She lost her little girl in a freak accident and work, her scientific endeavors, are all she really has. Her work associate, senior astronaut and shuttle pilot Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney) is enjoying his last trip to space and supports Ryan as she conducts repairs on the Hubble space telescope.

However, their work is interrupted because the Russians destroy a satellite which accidentally causes a chain reaction by breaking apart other satellites which creates high speed space particles that their mission will fly through. These particles may destroy their ship and they need to leave. I won’t share any more about the storyline but it is definitely worth the price of admission.

Yes, Clooney and Bullock star in this film but the overall star of this film is the director, space, and the ability to move the sense of space into the theater like no other film has.

Bullock is absolutely Oscar nominee worthy. Her performance had me believe she was in space and was this person. She was brilliant. Clooney was superb. His self-depreciative humor in character was spot on. He was the veteran, the cowboy, the thoughtful leader – perfect. Alfonso Cuaron and Jonas Cuaron wrote an amazingly out of the world script grounded in real human characters. Alfonso’s direction was beyond sublime and he will be nominated for sharing this amazing experience.

Overall:  This is a must see and I suggest pay the extra fee for 3D.