Roma ★★★

Most people will only see Alfonso Cuarón’s latest on Netflix. This is a real shame, since the Oscar-winning director of Gravity has utilized nearly every technique in his technical arsenal to recreate the Mexico of his youth, using bleeding-edge technology to compose an intimate love letter to his nanny, played by acting novice Yalitza Aparicio. This is a film that was designed to be experienced in a state-of-the-art theater capable of presenting the 360-degree, immersive sound and sumptuously long takes shot in crisp black-and-white by Cuarón himself, acting as his own cinematographer. A Dolby Atmos Theater is the ideal venue (there’s one at the ShowPlace ICON in the Seaport). Alas, local audiences will have to settle for a standard screen at Landmark’s Kendall Square location, where Roma will be playing for exactly one week before moving to the streaming service, where its accomplishments will literally be minimized when viewing the picture on a laptop or—horror of horrors—on a phone. Now, you may be asking yourself, why make such a fuss over how one views this modest little character drama that Cuarón has drawn from memory? In fact, it’s a valid question, since his simple story’s at odds with the epic treatment it’s been given. You might recall a couple of masterful tracking shots in 2006’s Children of Men, which stands as one of the finest films of its decade. Well, Cuarón has decided to compose an entire film with such shots. How you respond to them, however, might scale directly with how you see them. Choose wisely. Watch it exclusively at Kendall Square through Dec. 13, before it moves to Somerville Theatre, Lexington and Netflix on Dec. 14.