READERS' CHOICE #29: CITY OF GOD (2002)

TW: Child death

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The farewell party for Benny. The strobe lighting was extremely effective and immediately made me feel on edge and disoriented while watching

BEST LINE

"Why return to the City of God, where God forgets about you?"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

91%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"City of God offers a shocking and disturbing -- but always compelling -- look at life in the slums of Rio de Janiero."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin."

DIRECTOR(S)

Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund

MAIN CAST

Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge

THOUGHTS

• Usually when I say a film reminded me of other films I don't mean that as a bad thing, especially if it reminded me of films I like. This is definitely the case with City of God - a lot of similarities with Scorsese's work, especially Goodfellas (one of my favourite movies), and at times it also reminded me of Tarantino. However, a big difference between City of God and the films of those two directors would be the ages of the main characters. I would estimate that most of the characters in City of God don't make it past their early 20s, and a lot of the action happens when they're even younger, in their teens. In this sense especially I was also reminded of films like Menace II Society and Boyz n the Hood
• City of God takes it even further, however, with some pretty shocking scenes of violence committed by and inflicted upon characters who appear to be 12 and under (and, again, trigger warning and also spoiler warning). There's a harrowing scene in which the teenaged drug lord Li'l Zé wants to make an example of some much younger kids, so he threatens two of them with a gun. I was sure that Li'l Zé was going to let them go after scaring them out of their wits, but no, he actually shoots each of them in the foot before telling another preteen to execute one of them. Again I was sure that Li'l Zé would relent, but the movie sees this scene through to its grim conclusion. It's heartrending but it doesn't feel manipulative
• Just like in Goodfellas this movie moves at a fair clip, rarely settling down for long, and always keeping us captivated. City of God got four nominations at the Academy Awards in 2004 (Director, Cinematography, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay). Pretty impressive, especially for a foreign film, but that was the same year that The Return of the King won pretty much everything so City of God was definitely at a disadvantage. Oddly enough it wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Film the previous year when it was released in Brazil, and therefore when it was submitted by Brazil to the Academy for consideration
• Speaking of Brazilian cinema, City of God was executive produced by Walter Salles, the director of I'm Still Here, the most recent Best Foreign Film winner
• Finally, the vast majority of the cast was recruited from the real slums of Rio de Janeiro, and some of them had actually lived in the real City of God favela. This contributes to a real sense of authenticity, but in cases like this you also have to hope that it wasn't mere exploitation going on here. Assistance groups were set up to aid the actors after filming finished, but the authenticity vs. exploitation debate is an interesting (and potentially troubling) one to consider

Up next: Some more sci-fi coming at you. Edge of Tomorrow from 2014