By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Netflix is enticing Oscar voters by releasing “Roma,” the immersive, black-and-white, semi-autobiographical film from Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity,” “Children of Men,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”) in a few theaters in addition to streaming on Dec. 14.
Set in 1971 in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma district, the opening scene is an optical illusion: the camera reveals the floor of a courtyard which turns into a mirror of an airplane in the sky above when soapy water flows across it.
It’s being mopped by Cleo (newcomer Yalitza Aparicio), an indigenous Mixteco from the southern state of Oaxaca; she works as a live-in maid/nanny for an upper middle class family.
Status-conscious Dr. Antonio (Fernando Grediaga) is often away on ‘business trips’ and drives a Ford Galaxy that’s too big for the carport. Short-tempered Señora Sofia (Marina de Tavira) is obviously harried. Their four school-age children adore Cleo, who stoically cleans up the turds left by their romping Alsatian.
Guileless Cleo has a boyfriend, Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), who’s devoted to martial arts, absurdly practicing nude with a shower rod. Before long, Dr. Antonio abandons Sofia for a mistress, just as selfish Fermin leaves Cleo pregnant and alone.
When the violent political upheaval known as the Corpus Christi Massacre in which nearly 120 student protesters were killed by government-supported paramilitaries, doleful Cleo views the mayhem through the window of the furniture store where she goes into labor while shopping for a crib.
Sensitively written, insightfully directed and vibrantly photographed by Cuaron, it’s epic, yet intricately detailed in its depiction of loneliness.
Production designer Eugenio Caballero (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) found an abandoned house scheduled for demolition and recreated it to resemble Cuaron’s boyhood home. To insure authenticity because most of his actors are nonprofessionals, Cuaron shot in linear order, not revealing the plot twists to his cast.
It’s dedicated to Liboria “Libo” Rodriguez, the woman who helped raise Cuaron when his parents divorced.
In Spanish with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Roma” is a tantalizing 10, a poignant, neorealist masterpiece that’s best viewed in theaters.
The tortuous turmoil of Garrard Conley’s ‘homosexual conversion’ therapy ordeal is chronicled in “Boy Erased,” Australian filmmaker Joel Edgerton’s respectful drama.
After struggling with insecurities about his sexuality for years, 19-year-old Jared Conley (Lucas Hedges) was outed as gay to his devout, conservative Southern Baptist parents, Nancy (Nicole Kidman) and Marshall (Russell Crowe) Eamons.
At his parents’ insistence, Jared begins conversion therapy at the Memphis-based ministry Love in Action detention facility, where sinister therapist Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) claims sexuality is a choice, influenced by poor parenting. He urges attendees to embark on secretive “moral inventories” of themselves and their families.
During indoctrination, flashbacks reveal that Jared had disturbing homosexual encounters during his freshman year in college. And there’s a cruel ordeal as another young man, Cameron (Britton Sear), is openly humiliated by Sykes, forcibly dunked in a bathtub, subjected to a fake funeral, and beaten with Bibles by therapists and his own family.
When Sykes summons Jerrod in front of the group, he denies that he hates his father and sneaks out to defiantly phone his protective mother to take him home. Soon after, Jared discovers that Cameron committed suicide while still in the program, and his mother eventually apologizes for her complicity in condemning him.
Based on Conley’s 2016 memoir, the leaders of many conversion therapy groups were fired. Indeed, after leaving the now-defunct Love in Action, repressed Sykes came ‘out’ and married another man.
Adapted with obviously noble intentions by writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton (who changed the characters’ names), it tackles a timely, controversial issue with admirable, if understated emotional depth. Pop star Troye Sivan and Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan play strategic supporting parts.
On the Granger Gauge, “Boy Erased” is a thoughtful, sensitive 7, aimed particularly at parents/families with LGBTQ children.
Inspired by writer/director Sean Anders’ and his wife Beth’s personal story, “Instant Family” is a gentle, warmhearted comedy about a couple who fostered, then adopted three children.
When house-flippers Pete (Mark Wahlberg) and Ellie (Rose Byrne) decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption, as conscientious social workers (Tig Notaro, Octavia Spencer) try to prepare them for the emotionally complicated hurdles they’ll have to overcome.
Attending an “adoption fair,” where prospective parents scope out children, they wind up with 15-year-old Lizzy (Isabela Moner), her brother Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and sister Lita (Julianna Gamiz).
At first, the kids are on best behavior. But then reality rears its disruptive head as the kids must learn boundaries and establish trust. Lita refuses to eat anything but chips; klutzy, apologetic Juan inadvertently causes chaos; and protective Lizzy refuses to cede control over her siblings.
Overwhelmed, Pete and Ellie realize that they’ve taken on a tremendous responsibility. Late at night, they remind themselves they don’t have to keep these children, musing how their lives would be sublimely uncomplicated if they gave them back. “We gotta just accept that we made a terrible mistake, and our lives are mostly going to suck now,” Pete concludes.
Sean Anders (“Daddy’s Home,” “That’s My Boy,” “Horrible Bosses 2”) has previously indulged in silly, immature humor, better suited to TV sitcoms. This time — after an awkward start — he’s crafted a poignant screenplay, co-writing with John Morris.
Anders is to be commended for tackling the foibles and frustrations of our American foster care system, albeit skirting the touchy topics of race, class and privilege and stumbling into a cautionary subplot about infatuated Lizzy sexting with the school’s predatory janitor.
On the Granger Gauge, “Instant Family” is an endearing, inspirational 6, dedicated to ensuring that the over 100,000 children in foster care find ‘forever’ homes. To learn more, go to instantfamily.org and adoptuskids.org.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
