mchekhov 2: Chek Harder wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2018, 10:32 pm

this movie should be banned on televisions

you liked it then


-Vader

my review is that you're hard-pressed to say anything bad about it

Keith is right. Here is how Roma is meant to be watched

put me down for a 10/10, too

Taked about this a week ago when I saw the movie but I've been so busy I haven't had time to pick up the thread.

I saw it in a living room, but with a top of the shelf 5.1 surround system and a high-end TV, so to me the experience was just divine. But then I saw it again last night with my mom (who also really liked it). 40-inch TV (compared to 65 the first time), no 4K, no HDR and with audio from nothing but the TV speakers. And the experience wasn't the same. Something was missing.

I get that this is a small-budget movie that won't appeal to a lot of people. And I get that it's expensive to go for a theater run and that Netflix and other streaming services are just going to steal more and more of these smaller movies away from theaters.

But Roma isn't just your regular niche film. It's supposed to be experienced in theaters. And I find it absurd that it's a Netflix release, regardless of who's decision that was. Cuaron made a movie in a format that most people will not experience, and it's not like if I watched Dunkirk in a regular theater or Avatar in 2D. We're talking a huge part of what makes the movie so incredibly good, just gone, unless you have a $200+++ sound sustem at home.

If a movie is good, you won’t need to bend over backwards go watch it “the right way” for it to be good. I watched Roma on my TV and I thought the experience was just fine. Am I missing out? Of course. But I almost feel a bit irritated when US members or others based in huge cities continuously circlejerk around the fact that everyone doing it “not the way it was iNtEnDeD” is WRONG.

I get joking about this, but I’m gonna say the same I thing I remember saying around Dunkirk era - filmmakers making films in a way that can’t be experienced by A LOT of their fans and viewers, and then (along with ~true film fans~) insisting that they have to be seen this particular way, are elitist. I’m sorry if that offends you in any way. This isn’t aimed at Cuarón or anything like that. I think you just have to be realistic about all of this, and if you exclude a large number of people who’d potentially adore your film because they can’t always travel long miles to experience them in theaters, then that... sucks.

Lol, I'm not blaming the audience for watching it the wrong way (I don't even live in a big city, and nobody here is showing Roma), I'm blaming whoever decided that a movie so clearly made for a big screen and surround sound ended up being a Netflix release. They should have put it up in all theaters around the world so that everyone could watch it the way it clearly was intended.

And I literally just said that the Dunkirk situation wasn't compatible because it isn't. Although watching it in IMAX was probably the best experience one could have, those who didn't see it that way still got to see it on the big screen with terrific audio. With Roma, almost nobody will get the chance to see it in theaters at all. Sure, most people wouldn't (and won't) see it anyways, but that's not the point. Why spend so much time on a soundscape that is so important to the experience and then just not release it in theaters?

Most of the interesting contemporary art happening right now almost never comes to Chicago. It stays sectioned off to NY/LA/London/Paris/Berlin, etc. I never get to see that stuff in remotely its proper setting if at all. Are those filmmakers "elitists" by not insisting their video gallery exhibitions be all over the world?

In terms of comparing "experiences' i see there as an X and Y. The X is a sliding scale of optimal experiences: a Dolby theater is more optimal than an iPhone and there's a lot of in between. The Y is that not all tell their stories the same way, and films that use image and sound as primary device of story or emotional experience rather than dialogue, plot, character, will have a greater need for higher quality sound and picture. So the X and Y converge with movies like Roma. Seeing Roma with flat picture and especially soudn is like watching Star Wars without the score. It is that extreme.

The answer to this problem, and "non-elitism" in general, winds up as policing artists to create art that doesn't take full advantage of the possibilities of their creativity and of their medium and that is not good.

-Vader

@Sanchez, just because I posted after you doesn’t mean I was addressing your post. Chill.

@Vader, I agree and get what you’re saying. So maybe I’m wording things badly, because I wouldn’t want others to assume I have a problem with how artists choose to create their art. I’m not about policing others, and they obviously choose whichever ways they’d like their story to be told.

I guess I have more beef with people who talk shit like “Roma should be banned on television”, and just kind of rubbing it in, because, seeing how Roma is not theatrically available for the vast majority of the world, this reeks of exclusivity. You’re put in a tricky position where you can’t watch this the way it was intended, but also watching this on Netflix is lame, cuz it’s not saaame. So, like, what are most people supposed to do lol. OBVIOUSLY, I assume, solo was joking, but there’s plenty of people who hold opinions like this genuinely. And it’s annoying as fuck. Chances are Roma would’ve never been released theatrically where I am, with or without Netflix, so I’m just glad I didn’t need to wait months to see it. But if it’s THAT extreme, as you said, then I might as well just say I haven’t seen the film yet.