Disclaimer

anything new from Cuaron is a blessing, especially if it’s shot by Emmanuel Lubezki and stars Cate Blanchett, but this really is amazing  i decided to wait until all 7 chapters of this were released before starting it, and in the few weeks in between its premiere and its finale, i saw a couple review headlines, some tweets, and some light discussion in film circles about the series. stayed away from most discussions to avoid spoilers, but i did get the impression that many were left disappointed, even perplexed by how seemingly “bland”, “melodramatic” or straight up “bad” the first few episodes were. having now seen the series in it’s entirety over the past few days, i honestly find it sad that so many people wrote this series off, refusing to dive deeper into the intention behind it’s filmmaking choices, themes and intent.  Cuaron quite bluntly announces his intent through a speech given by a character in one of the first few scenes of the series, and over the course of each episode, he plays around with narrative, form, cinematic language and differing perspectives, inviting viewers to continually investigate the complexities of storytelling, inherent biases built into specific narrative structures, and how a viewer’s own judgment is influenced as a result of the way a story is told.  absolute masterclass on a technical level, with cinematography from not only Lubezki (still the best in the game imo), but also from Bruno Delbonnel, who was brought in to establish a different visual language in one of the series’ many narrative perspectives. a lot of detail is given to the way specific POVs are shot, edited and scored to highlight the nature and form that specific perspective is taking and what it’s trying to convey, in some cases metaphorically.  there’s really a lot to unpack, digest and analyze here, and i can definitely see myself rewatching this soon, especially to see how the first 6 episodes play out after seeing it slowly reveal itself by the final chapter.  also cate blanchett is the best actress of all time, soooo there’s that