Rating: 
Summary: Reality vs. Morality
Review: Brilliant movie. It takes the concept of poetic justice towards poignant brutality so brilliantly ridiculous and coincidental that the images will stay with you long after you've seen it.A lot of films about people living in impoverished environments always tend to allow its characters the luxury to have choices in their lives. In City of God, the paths and conclusion to the lives of the characters weren't mapped out from their choices. They in fact had no choice at all as that was part of the point of the film. The movie revealed that while cinematic or literary mores may constitute fictional characters to make choices in their lives that would bring about change, whether it be positive or negative, in the reality of the lives of the hoodlums in City of God, they really had no choice. Their choices were simply be a criminal or be killed. That is unfortunately the reality in high risk neighborhoods not just in Brazil but in America and I'm sure anywhere in the world as well. Anyone can say the obvious of spouting out drivel about how a person can overcome great difficulties through the right choices in their life. However, what that well-intentioned but enormously misappropriated statement fails to point out is that it is a rarity and an exception when that does happen. This is a film that makes good-intentioned morality-rich movies like Boyz N The Hood and Menace to Society seem hokey and forced.
Rating:
Summary: Rocket
Review: Stunningly beautiful, hopeful and grim. Leaves an impression, but no impression at all, with characters more often amusing than involving. Given the broad scope of the film, it's no suprise. That and the sometimes nauseating camerawork/editing fail in their plot to ruin this movie in the least. It's fresh and intelligent. The cinematography manages to make this movie probably one of the best looking ever - the ghettos are as beautiful as the "intentionally placed but wholely prosthetic beautiful scenery" in many movies, and the beach scenes transcend beauty, at the same time fake plastic heaven and paradise born to reality. Acting is perfect, maybe reading subtitles diminishes my judgement, but it never once seemed like it was being over/under acted, even acted at all. The story is comprably grand, if not particularly moving, adept in its ability to convey itself, and enough to be entertaining without being too much of a weight upon other aspects of the movie. See City of God now. Buy it upon release and you probably won't have qualms about rewatching it (probably the biggest benifit of its relative distance emotionally).
Rating:
Summary: A True Story Very Well Told
Review: When I decided to watch "Cidade de Deus", I was rather hesitant. Although I had heard positive comments for the film, there were several things that were putting me off: The shoot-em-up story did not sound original, the actors were amateur, the language and location were not so familiar. However I devided to give it a try. Well, it proved to be a very wise move by my side: "Cidade de Deus" is simply an excellent film. The story might not be that original but is very interesting and very well-told. The "amateur" actors are superb, and perform much better than many professional ones. The language and location may not sound familiar at the beginning, but the masterful director soon gets you quickly entwined with the environment; in fact, he is maybe the greatest asset of this production, as he does an excellent job in providing us with a top-notch direction. What you see is sometimes so surreal (a poor ghetto community totally isolated from the "normal" parts of Brazil, small children toying with drugs and guns, people showing a complete lack of respect for human life, etc.) that you tend to think it is a bit exaggerated. Sadly, it is not: The story is true, and many if the actors that play in it are actual inhabitants of this kind of ghetto communities. The film should awake many of us who sometimes tend to feel that our comfortable lives are the norm in this world, when in fact they are rather the exception.
Rating:
Summary: CIDADE DE DEUS
Review: Simply put, this is probably one of the single most significant films ever released, and (so far) undoubtedly the most important film of the 21st century. You know, I won't bog you down with technical and story details, 'cause you don't want to read those again. But the film is packed to the gills with so much rich detail and believably realistic acting from no one's residing in the very "favela" that is the film's namesake, which inherently implies that it warrants something uniquely special. Any misanthropic gutterpunk in the US can hate our government because of what it deprives its citizens, but you know what? They haven't seen this movie; they have not known true and calculated governmental neglect.
But, I'll just let these facts speak for themselves: "Cidade de Deus" has remained in Bay Area movie theaters for going on fifteen months straight, the controversy of the film's failure to gain entry into the 2002 Oscars' Best Foreign Language Film category heralded delayed critical celebratory nominations for the following year, in which it garnered every single important nomination excluding "Best Picture". And the film is Brazil's number one all-time money maker. That not enough? The film's reception and high accolades are also responsible for the Brazilian government prompting socioeconomic reform. This is what I mean when I use the term "significant," and I don't use it lightly.
The direction is beyond craftsmanlike, the cinematography exemplary, the screenplay is crisp, layered, and cleverly nonlinear without ever making the viewer play catchup. And the editing... oh, man, the editing. It won the British Film Award for Editing back in 2002, and in case you don't know, that is a granddaddy prize for technical film achievement.
The film boasts maybe one of the strongest senses of place I've ever witnessed in film. This film takes place INSIDE that world; the world does not take place around the film, if that makes any sense.
If you want to watch something that will teach you about the forgotten corners of the world even more than being uncommonly entertaining and violently riveting, this is the film to wake up with. I cannot offer a higher recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Ripped from the headlines
Review: For anyone who thinks Fernando Meirelles' "Cidade de Deus" (City of God) might be a bit melodramatic and over the top, consider the lead paragraph from this recent (April 17, 2004) news story from the Financial Times: "While tourists sipped caipirinhas in Rio de Janeiro's exclusive Leblon district during the Easter holidays, machine-gun fire echoed from the scenic hills above. A turf war raged between rival gangs trying to dominate the nearby Rocinha favela - and its drug market estimated at $3m per week - and at least a dozen people were killed. Since then the police have killed Luciano Barbosa da Silva, the drug lord known as Lulu, and 1,200 officers have been occupying Rocinha." If you've seen the movie, you know that story is life imitating art. 'City of God' scores on two levels - the story itself is gripping and jaw-dropping, but the technical achievement of the film is also worthy of note. It scored a Best Director Oscar nomination for Meirelles. It's easy to see why. From the opening scene (which also doubles as one of the closing scenes) of a mad scramble through the favela to chase down a fleeing chicken, to a shocking robbery gone bad at a local motel, to a party to toast retiring drug lord Benny, to Lil' Dice's moment of truth, it's just one amazing sequence after another. I just think of the coordination it must have taken to pull together the scene depicting Benny's going away party. The depth of action in that 10-minute or so sequence is so rich, it'll take 10+ viewings to pick up all the details Meirelles has crammed in there. This is an amazing movie worth seeing a couple of times or more.
Rating:
Summary: Truly, one of the best films you'll ever see!
Review: It's hard to describe a movie like City of God. It's not a documentary, but its grittiness makes you feel like what you're seeing is real. It's based on a true story, but it's hard to believe that events like the ones shown in the film actually can happen. It's hard to not relate and care for some of the characters even though most of them are murderers and drug users or traffickers. City of God, or Cidade de Deus, is a brilliant, if brutal, film. First time director Fernando Meirelles brings to life a story of a group of boys who live in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the 60's and 70's. Life there is tremendously hard and most kids end up as criminals, using and trafficking drugs, and carrying guns and shoothing each other like its their birthright. Meirelles succeeds in bringing a vibrant and dynamic direction to the story, with a fantastic use of editing and music. But the thing that brings the film to life is the performance of all the actors, some of which are actually gang members and inhabitants of Rio's slums. Their acting is right on the spot, and because most of them (if not all) are unknown to the audience, they literally become their characters. It's been compared to Scorsese's Goodfellas, and I think that's a fair comparison, not only because of the subject, but also because of the use of editing and the intertwining of stories. The use of narration by the main character is also similar. This film was nominated to four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Meirelles, Best Adapted Screenplay for Bráulio Mantovani, Best Editing (brilliantly done by Daniel Rezende) and Best Cinematography.
Rating:
Summary: Gangs of Rio De Janeiro
Review: Thanks to Charles Murphy for his heads-up re the DVD. I'll be sure to look for the Brazilian version. I haven't seen the DVD yet. This review concerns the movie I saw in the theater. This is a great movie, on a par with Scorsese's "Goodfellas". It is exactly what "Gangs of New York" was supposed to be: a tragic tale of two generations of gang life in the slums of a huge, sprawling, hopeless, lawless city. Whereas "Gangs" got lost in a phony story with miscast actors, "City of God" is a perfect recreation of its subject matter. We see all the characters grow up in these squalid surroundings, and everything they do makes sense, tragic sense. We watch in horror as people get sucked into a dead-end life of crime, while a lucky few escape. We see the whole thing come round and then go full circle again. We understand at the end that the whole senseless, bloody thing will go on and on. The old monsters get pushed aside by the new monsters they helped to create. And it will keep on keeping on. Another generation, another mess. Humanity will never learn from its mistakes. This is a movie that sticks with you. After you've seen it, you won't forget it.
Rating:
Summary: How cool is Benny?
Review: Ask yourself if you like films? If yes, then you'll love this. If no, then what the hell are you reading this review for. First of all, the camera trickery and Scorcese style sporadic flicks, freeze frames and flashbacks are superbly executed and work naturally within the framwork of the film. They only drive to make it stylish. Style amongst ghetto slums can only be cool. Add to that some cool as a cucumber Brazilian samba tunes, 70's throwback songs and general cool songs. Add to that the character "Benny" - the coolest guy put on celluloid in 2003. He isn't the main character, but he dominates the screen when he is on. And you start to really understand his plans and subsequent plight. We witness a world that we won't ever be a part of, and won't ever truly understand, and we are taken on a shakesperean story of epic proportions, even though the setting is a Rio favela isn't "epic" in essence, it is made epic by the sprawling time frame and vast array of characters. This is what we learn at GCSE Geography, about poverty and the struggle to get free of the slums, only here it's simply irresistible. The story was adapted from a novel by Paulo Lins, who grew up in the area and witnessed the lifestyle firsthand. 80's cool, 70's even cooler, cool characters, cool music, cool story, cool cinematography. Subtitles? Didn't notice!!
Rating:
Summary: five star movie, two star dvd
Review: after delaying the release of this dvd A YEAR (!!!), miramax opted to include only ONE special feature. i highly suggest ordering the brazilian two disc special edition dvd from someone on ebay. i did, and it is a great disc, full of extras, and featuring english subtitles. the catch? your dvd player has to be region free, or region "0". the solution? playstation 2 will play all region dvds with the use of a "gameshark 2". here is the compromise. buy the gameshark through amazon, and then buy the dvd from ebay. trust me, it's worth the investment, and i've had my copy since last year!
Rating: 
Summary: the emperor's new clothes
Review: i'm sorry, i just don't see a masterpiece here. even though all these poor children are murdered, in a world that doesn't care, the character developement in this movie was so poor that in the end, i didn't care either. this film might as well be a documentary because it makes little use of the power of art to incite our emotions. it did convey a feeling of hopelessness i guess and maybe that was the point, but it could have done so much more.
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