Critics are falling over themselves calling Roma the best movie of the year. It has won the New York Critics award, the LA Critics award, the San Francisco Critics Award. It was named top film by The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times. Though it’s available on Netflix now, many of these writers emphasized the value of seeing the movie on the big screen in its limited release. So last weekend, we did that.

We are not entirely in agreement with the critics. In fact, Jean declared it one of the worst movies he’s seen in a while.

Yet, it’s not one of those badly made, stupid movies. The black and white cinematography is, indeed, gorgeous. The actors, including the non-professional lead, are very good. It used surround sound in a way I’ve never experienced before–conversation coming from the side, ambient sound behind us. (In fact, at first I thought we were hearing bleeding from another cinema. Then I remembered it was a single-screen theatre.) The story has some sections that are quite moving, others rather shocking.

But. The story, inspired by writer and director Alfonso Cuaròn’s own childhood, hews very close to life. There are scenes of house cleaning, meal preparing, TV watching, house party attending. Events occur, some rather dramatic, but overall there isn’t much of a driving plot.

And that’s a problem. Apparently not for critics, but I think for much of the public. We want heightened reality out of our movies, because reality is kind of dull.

I realized that I should have researched more before heading out to see this one, but I was motivated by all the praise plus the fact that I’ve really enjoyed other movies by this director, including Y Tu Maman Tambien, Children of Men, and Arrival. I figured this one, like those, would have a strong plot. That was not the case.

It’s kind of the opposite of Bohemian Rhapsody, where many critics slagged the plot as cliche and superficial, and others criticized the many divergences from reality for heightened drama. But Bohemian Rhapsody was a crowdpleaser, likely in part because it did impose a dramatic arc on reality.

Whether you should watch Roma depends on what you’re looking for in a movie. It is on Netflix, so pretty low cost of entry to try it—though unless you have really great TV and surround sound system, it’s true that you’re going to miss out on some of what’s best about it. But if this is your kind of thing, I guess it’s a good example of that kind of thing.

Me, I like more of a story.