Brazzzillll!!!!!

Rocket's family and friends are easily drawn into the violence, even though he's trying not to be part of it - He wants to be a photographer; it's his way of escaping and detaching himself from his world. But try as he might, it's a inevitable that he's somehow going to be involved, even in the periphery.

City of God is one of the most electrifying films I've seen in a long while. This director* is like the demon spawn of Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarentino, Guy Ritchie, PT Anderson and Martin Scorsese. That's not to say that the film is in any way derivative or a copycat of styles, because it certainly isn't. It's a cohesive cinematic language that makes sense given the subject matter of the story. The cast of City of God (almost completely made of non-actors) couldn't be better. It's amazing that they got so much acting talent out of kids that are essentially picked off the streets of Rio.

City of God hits the viewer with a blast of imagery and story which at first has little cohesiveness or narrative. It's hard to keep track of who's who. The movie does that thing where it switches narrative, time and skips over years in a single burst of film - something that we've come to love and enjoy from the directors that I mentioned above, but it's really a breath of fresh air to see in a film so steeped in foreign narrative.

But it's not just a visual explosion of crime and violence. There's a story of crime families, rising to power, losing power, that's worthy of any comparisons to Goodfellas or The Godfather. Of course, there is one glaring omission in all of this: it's a film that stars children and young people almost exclusively.

Yes, thanks to the rise of drugs and crime, the street and poverty stricken children of Brazil are the ones who took to the street, formed crime families and roving bands of armed murders. These are YOUNG children. As young as seven, picking up guns and committing atrocities. In this way, City of God doesn't at all elicit the same kind of reaction that The Sopranos does, the elevated view of crime as something cool. No, it's rather sickening, seeing the way that these children's lives

City of God is one of those films that you'll just have to watch over and over again for some of the amazing sequences and heartbreaking material. I can't wait until you see it.

Movie Grade: A+
* In all fairness, there's been a bit of controversy about the real director of this film. It seems that Lund directed the actors, and Meirelles did the other, visual stuff and editing. When he was nominated for an Academy Award, but she wasn't, there was a bit of uncomfortableness. After seeing the film, and the performances that these kids give, I think it's fair to say that authorship is a 50 / 50 split of 100% fucking awesome.

Video: 5 out of 5
A foreign film looking kick ass? This transfer is very solid, with the colors balanced quite well. Of course, like a good film nowadays, there's lots of post-production bleach bypass, purposeful grain, and other visual tricks that hit you in the gut.
Widescreen Anamorphic - 1.85:1

Rocket and his camera.

Audio: 4 out of 5
A really, really strong audio track that once again had me surprised. The effects are used almost constantly, but never become gratuitous. Lots of grand sweeps, gunfire, screams and music enter and swirl around your head.
Brazilian Portuguese (Dolby 5.1)

Extras: 3.5 out of 5
It's surprising that I'm giving this grade to a film with just one extra, but it's a damn good one. "News from a Personal War" is an hour long look at Brazil's poor favelas in 1997, more than 15 years after the events in the film. Sadly, not much has changed. The camera crew goes with both the police and drug runners in Rio, following them and trying to get to the root of the problems there. It also features some fascinating interviews with the Police Chief, who's surprisingly forthcoming and intelligent about his fight against crime.

Overall: 5 out of 5
If you're a fan of films (and even if you hate reading subtitles) I couldn't recommend City of God more highly. It's a great crime-action-drama with a great South American twist. Disturbing and exciting.

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