Since making his film debut in the 1990s, Alfonso Cuarón has established himself as one of the most interesting and talented directors in Hollywood. He’s not the most prolific director, having now gone over six years without a new movie, but the quality more than makes up for the relative lack of quality. Cuarón is also one of a handful of movie directors who also make great TV shows. He recently created and directed Cate Blanchett’s Apple TV+ thriller Disclaimer. Recent reports suggest that his next project will be a movie titled Billy Please Call Home.
Alfonso Cuarón’s movies span a wide range of genres and styles, including children’s fantasy movies, raunchy comedies and intelligent drama movies. This is an impressive variety for a director with just eight movies under his belt. Cuarón has proven that he can do anything he sets his mind to. As well as hopping between genres with ease, he has also written some incredible scripts and won an Oscar for his cinematography skills. His movies often use long takes, conflicted characters pushed to extremes and striking visual imagery.
You are watching: All 8 Alfonso Cuarón Movies, Ranked Worst To Best
8
Great Expectations (1998)
Cuarón Has Voiced His Disappointment With Great Expectations
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Great Expectations
Release Date
January 30, 1998
Runtime
111 Minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
Charles Dickens, Mitch Glazer
Producers
Art Linson
Cast
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Ethan Hawke
Finnegan Bell
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Gwyneth Paltrow
Estella
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Hank Azaria
Walter Plane
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Alfonso Cuarón seems to agree with most critics that Great Expectations is his weakest movie, calling it “a complete failed film“. (via Variety) There have been countless adaptations of Charles Dickens novels over the years, with Great Expectations being one of the most popular. To create something different from the norm, Cuarón decided to set his adaptation in New York City in the 1990s. Naturally, this causes several knock-on effects, with characters’ names, dialogue and the plot needing changes to fit with the setting.
Alfonso Cuarón seems to agree with most critics that Great Expectations is his weakest movie, calling it “a complete failed film“.
Even though Great Expectations doesn’t represent Cuarón’s best work, it’s still gorgeously shot, and it has a self-assured style. Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke play the two lovers at the center of the movie’s steamy romance, with Robert De Niro and Anne Bancroft among the supporting cast. Unfortunately, Great Expectations turns out to be less than the sum of its parts. It’s a muddled adaptation that often obscures the motives and the emotions of the characters, so that Dickens’ powerful story is also lost in the move to ’90s New York.
7
Sólo Con Tu Pareja (1992)
Alfonso Cuarón’s Film Debut Was A Comedic Hit
Sólo con tu Pareja translates to Only With Your Partner, but the movie is also known as Love in the Time of Hysteria. Alfonso Cuarón wrote the script for his film debut with his brother Carlos, and the script is arguably what makes Sólo con tu Pareja so popular. It’s a raunchy adult comedy that follows a womanizer living a life of uninhibited free love until he is led to believe that he has contracted AIDS. While this risqué premise could destroy a less intelligent movie, Sólo con tu Pareja manages to remain funny and deceptively complex.
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Sólo con tu Pareja kickstarted Cuarón’s working relationship with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has worked on all of his subsequent movies except for Roma. Lubezki adds a touch of class to the movie, although his style would flourish as his career developed, resulting in much splashier and more eye-catching movies than Sólo con tu Pareja. He and the Cuarón brothers created a sleeper hit with Sólo con tu Pareja, a comedy that gained international attention, and it has only grown in popularity since Cuarón’s career has truly taken off.
6
A Little Princess (1995)
Cuarón’s First English-Language Movie Adapts A Classic Children’s Book
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A Little Princess
Release Date
May 10, 1995
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
Elizabeth Chandler
Producers
Alan C. Blomquist, Amy Ephron, Barry Levinson
Cast
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Eleanor Bron
Miss Minchin
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Liesel Matthews
Sara Crewe
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Liam Cunningham
Capt. Crewe / Prince Rama
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A Little Princess was Alfonso Cuarón’s first English-language movie, following the success of Sólo con tu Pareja, and it was also his first book adaptation. Released three years before Great Expectations, A Little Princess seems decidedly more Dickensian, as Cuarón loosely adapts Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved children’s book with many of his own story ideas woven in. It’s become a nostalgic cult classic for people of a certain age, especially women. Cuarón could hardly have made a more radically different film to Sólo con tu Pareja if he tried.
A Little Princess is a charming fable about imagination, individuality and resilience, perhaps drawing from Cuarón’s experiences as an artist. The period setting – beautifully constructed with top-class costumes and sets – helps to wipe away more modern ideas of childhood. The world of A Little Princess is one that’s more dangerous for children, but also more exciting and more respectful of their individuality. A Little Princess is an oddity among Cuarón’s early movies, but he proves that he can tap into children’s ficiton with ease.
5
Gravity (2013)
Cuarón’s Blockbuster Revived An Entire Genre
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Gravity
Release Date
October 3, 2013
Runtime
1h 31m
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, George Clooney
Cast
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Sandra Bullock
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George Clooney
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Ed Harris
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Alfonso Cuarón has always had an eye for cinematic spectacle, choosing unorthodox shots and techniques which call attention to themselves. Gravity gives him the ideal playground to let his impulses fly, and the result is a nail-biting roller-coaster of a movie that raked in $723.2 million at the global box office. Gravity‘s immense success inspired a miniature boom in space exploration movies in the 2010s, with Interstellar, The Martian, Ad Astra, First Man and more all coming out in quick succession.
The fact that it’s one of the most successful 3-D movies ever made underlines its status as a blockbuster experience.
With a runtime of 91 minutes, Gravity races past in the blink of an eye. Sandra Bullock spends most of the movie on-screen by herself, a lone astronaut facing impossible odds to return to the safety of Earth after a disaster in orbit. The short runtime and the relentless pace of the action means that Gravity never digs deep into its main character, and the story ends up being little more than a vehicle for some jaw-dropping scenes. However, it’s hard to resist Gravity‘s appeal. The fact that it’s one of the most successful 3-D movies ever made underlines its status as a blockbuster experience, even though it isn’t as deep or rewatchable as Cuarón’s best work.
4
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Cuarón Returned To Mexico For His Best Movie Yet
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Y Tu Mamá También
Release Date
June 8, 2001
Runtime
106 Minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
Alfonso Cuarón, Carlos Cuarón
Cast
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Maribel Verdú
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Gael García Bernal
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Diego Luna
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There are many great directors from all over the world who break into Hollywood and never look back, but Alfonso Cuarón decided to make another Mexican movie after A Little Princess and Great Expectations. Y tu mamá también could be seen as a spiritual successor to Sólo con tu Pareja, and it surpasses Cuaróns first movie in practically every way, showing a more assured vision developed over the years. Y tu mamá también looks like a carefree road trip movie from the outside, but it’s surprisingly deep and articulate.
Y tu mamá también could be seen as a spiritual successor to Sólo con tu Pareja, and it surpasses Cuaróns first movie in practically every way.
Y tu mamá también is arguably Cuarón’s first truly great movie. It’s appropriate that this comes on his return to Mexico, since Y tu mamá también has a lot to say about the class divide in Mexico and the country’s divide between the old and the new. While the characters spend a lot of time talking about sex, what they see outside the confines of their car tells a completely different story running in parallel. Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna both had their breakthrough roles in Y tu mamá también, a movie which has reached a huge international audience over the years.
3
Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)
Cuarón Shook Up The Harry Potter Franchise
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Release Date
May 31, 2004
Runtime
144 Minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves
Prequel(s)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Sequel(s)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Cast
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Gary Oldman
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David Thewlis
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Daniel Radcliffe
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The Harry Potter franchise eventually had to grow up along with its audience, transitioning from children’s movies into young adult territory. The Prisoner of Azkaban represents the single greatest leap forward in the franchise’s style, completely reworking the formula of the first two movies to create something much darker and grittier, without ever betraying the sense of magic that make the movies so popular in the first place. Harry’s third year at Hogwarts sees him facing dementors, werewolves and a released prisoner who seems to have Harry in his sights.
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Alfonso Cuarón was an unusual choice for the Harry Potter franchise’s third movie, but he delivered one of the franchise’s best movies. The Prisoner of Azkaban plays up the elements of horror that often pop up throughout the series, culminating in a final act that maintains a relentless pace as Harry and his friends reverse time to save themselves from doom. It’s also a joy to see so many great actors given room to operate, as The Prisoner of Azkaban introduces Gary Oldman, David Thewlis and Timothy Spall. Other highlights of the movie include Harry’s flight on Buckbeak, the introduction of the Marauder’s Map, and the Knight Bus.
2
Children Of Men (2006)
Cuarón’s Dystopian Gem Has Influence Sci-Fi In The 21st Century
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Children of Men
Release Date
January 5, 2007
Runtime
109 minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
David Arata, Hawk Ostby, Timothy J. Sexton, Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Fergus
Cast
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Julianne Moore
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Clare-Hope Ashitey
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Clive Owen
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Alfonso Cuarón proved once again that he couldn’t be confined to a box when he directed Children of Men. Along with Y tu mamá también and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuarón put together an immaculate three-movie run that spanned three completely different genres. Children of Men is a dystopian sci-fi thriller which envisions a near future brought to the brink of complete societal collapse when humanity somehow loses the ability to procreate. This is a unique angle for an apocalyptic movie, since it seems closer to real life than any zombie apocalypse or global nuclear war.
By tearing society down, Cuarón is able to explore how people interact on different scales.
Children of Men has helped to shape the sci-fi genre for years. One technique that other directors have lifted is Cuarón’s immersive use of long takes, which can either add to the realism of the world or create breathtaking action sequences. This gritty sci-fi helps facilitate Cuarón’s examination of human nature, which touches on philosophy, religion and social theory. By tearing society down, Cuarón is able to explore how people interact on different scales. Children of Men‘s ending cements its place as a sci-fi gem, which makes its box office failure even more surprising.
1
Roma (2018)
Cuarón’s Opus Scored Him A Best Director Oscar
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Roma
Release Date
December 14, 2018
Runtime
135 minutes
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Writers
Alfonso Cuarón
Cast
-
Yalitza Aparicio
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Daniela Demesa
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Marco Graf
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Roma is Alfonso Cuarón’s most personal film, reflecting on his childhood and the culture he grew up in. It’s also his best work so far, receiving 10 Oscar nominations and winning both Best Director and Best Cinematography for Cuarón. The story follows Cleo, the live-in housekeeper of a wealthy family in Mexico City. Cuarón’s slow, meditative story takes time to build the characters of the household, exposing the chasm between the different classes living side-by-side with a series of intelligent and beautifully constructed vignettes.
Cuarón took over as cinematographer for Roma, creating a visually striking black-and-white film rich with detail and meaning. He deploys plenty of long tracking shots, keeping his subjects at arm’s length to avoid becoming too sentimental. His camera drinks in every inch of the scene, creating a vibrant portrait that feels shockingly immersive in spite of its stark chiaroscuro composition. Roma is an ambitious film that shows the wild humor and pain of life in full, but Cuarón pays just as much attention to the small and seemingly inconsequential moments that make up our days.
Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment