The movie “Roma” is written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón who last directed the great 2013 movie “Gravity”. Roma could not be more different than Gravity. There are no special effects, the entire film is shot in black and white, something I have not seen in many years and this is a foreign language film with subtitles. The story is very minimal centering on the bleak life of a maid named Cleo who lives in Mexico City in the early 70’s and works for an upper middle class family. Cleo is the name of a common house cat and Cleo’s personality throughout this entire story seems as if she is a house cat herself, due to so many years of being beaten down for being born poor in the exact wrong place and time. Over the years, she just has no choice to accept her life as it is. The reality for so many millions like Cleo is, there is no where to go, no where to hide; you do what you have to do to survive.

Cleo becomes pregnant by her lowlife boyfriend, who once he finds out she is pregnant just abandons her at a movie theater and later disrespects her in public even threatening her with violence. Cleo just takes the non stop abuse with no emotion, as if being treated badly by everyone is her lot in life, her birthright. Much of this is difficult to watch because Cleo, played by a first time actress Yalitza Aparicio is so likable. She is beloved by the family she works for and their four children. She is constantly cleaning a hallway where the family dog defecates and this hallway/car garage is shown and cleaned so often in this movie it is even part of the opening montage. There is a deep message within this garage hallway where the family car can barely fit into and my personal understanding of this symbolism is that it the hallway represents the depressing confined life of so many millions of poor hard working people in the world.

There are several scenes in this film, showing the 1971 Corpus Christi Massacre in the middle of this story that enhances the bleak and dangerous reality of Cleo and all the people in her life. There are some violent scenes of murder and shootings that for some may be difficult to watch.

The visuals and symbolism throughout this film are many, enhanced by the high quality black and white film making. I was most impressed by the ending where Cleo is seen climbing a dangerous looking outdoor flight of stairs carrying laundry realizing that she has made this trip so many times in the past. This is her depressing life day after day, a family maid, climbing stairs over and over, making dinner, cleaning the garage, cleaning the house, accepting her life of being poor with no hope of anything better.

All of the reviews for this movie are outstanding, with accolades for the director Alfonso Cuarón, who has taken 5 years to make this movie after Gravity, which is a tribute to how much time he took to write and direct what many are considering to be a masterpiece of film making. This movie will most likely be in the list of 10 movies nominated for best picture this year, and should definitely win the best foreign language film of 2018. Roma represents a high level of film making as an art form, even though the story is very minimal but the underlying messages, visuals and symbolism are of a quality I have never seen before. Roma is Cuarón’s gift to the harsh life reality of millions of poor people in the world and I give it my highest recommendation.

This is a movie about the reality of war, but this reality is completely avoidable. In my opinion, there has never been any need to ever have any member of the press in harms way in the middle of any war zone in the world. Members of the press are not trained, do not have a weapon and everything that they do, including taking pictures, video and ultimately writing a story all can be replaced with simple common sense alternatives, that ultimately will save lives. The number of correspondents killed while covering wars over the years is staggering and completely unnecessary. A simple video camera on a tank, some pictures being taken by a soldier and in the end the same story, without putting a civilian in such a dangerous situation can be written with the reporter safe and sound in a hotel miles from the war.

The movie “A Private War” is about war correspondent Marie Colvin who spent her entire career reporting in war zones and ultimately lost her eye and in the end her life in Syria in February 2012 spending her last minutes in the most violent place on earth that she had no business being in.

There is a saying about having a “calling” for a particular profession, and this includes being a doctor or a dentist, a construction worker and as this story clearly proves – being a reporter; reporting in the most violent and dangerous places on earth because you just have to be a witness to history, you just have to get that story.

The acting in this movie is very good, starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Colvin but for me the non stop, constant and disgusting cigarette chain smoking in this movie was so prevalent, I cannot give a recommendation to this movie. Despite the very strong reviews, especially on Rotten Tomatoes at 89%, I still cannot recommend this film out of principle. It does not matter that Marie Colvin and her colleagues probably smoked, what matters in this film is the overwhelming and constant depiction of this horrendous risk to a person’s health that has no business being shown in any movie this frequently. Especially because some Tobacco company is investing money to help produce the film.

Probably the most significant thing about the very good movie “Green Book” is finding out about what the Green Book was. The Green Book was a book that was published in the 50’s and 60’s that documented all the places in the Southern United States that was friendly to black people. The fact that a book like this had to be published so that black people could travel in peace in the South is tragic and represents a harsh reality of bigotry that has existed for far too many years in this country.

The real life story of Green Book is a great one, about a chauffeur who drives a highly talented black piano player Dr. Don Shirley to performance venues in the Midwest and then the deep South in 1962. As a black man having the courage to play shows in the deep south Shirley needed not only a driver but also a body guard so he hired Tony Lip to protect him from the expected bigotry and abuse he knew he would face performing as a black man in some of the most dangerous cities in this country. What is both amazing and depressing about this story is that even though Don Shirley was a greatly respected piano player who played shows to rich white people, he was not even allowed to use the bathroom, dine at the restaurant or even try on a suit jacket in a local clothing store.

Early in this story, we find out that Tony Lip is also a bigot even stooping to throwing out drinking glasses in his house because two black repairmen drank from them. The point of this story is all about the transition from bigotry to humanity and it reminded me of the great movie released in 2000, “Remember the Titans”, starring Denzel Washington who was the coach of a racially divided high school football team. The message here is that bigotry exists because of stupidity, fear and prejudice born out of habit. When people are put together as people then all that remains is that we are all just human beings first and foremost, and the color of our skin has never been relevant. Its always been the most tragic that a concept this basic and obvious has been so unreachable to so many people.

The acting in Green Book is outstanding with Viggo Mortensen as Tony Lip and Mahershala Ali as Dr. Don Shirley. This film should definitely receive an Academy Award nomination for best picture with possible nominations for both Mortensen and Ali. I highly recommend Green Book as one of the very best movies of 2018.