MOVIE - CITY OF GOD - Review Rating $$$$$ $$$$ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING - Alexandre Rodrigues (Rocket), Firmino da Hora (L'il Ze Leandro), Phelipe Haagensen (Benny), Matheus Nachtergaele (Carrott), Johnathan Haagensen (Shaggy), & Seu Jorge (Knockout Ned).
DIRECTOR - Fernando Meirelles
A coming of age story set in the Rio de Janeiro slum known as the City of God (Cidade de Deus).
City of God, a name that epitomizes Orwellian doublespeak, is a housing project in Brazil's largest city (Rio de Janeiro) meant to house and hide that country's "tired ...poor... wretched huddled masses... yearning to breathe free". It is, in fact, a place that suffocates humanity and where the cheapest commodity is life itself.
City of God is narrated by, Rocket (Rodrigues), one of the few to escape the clutches of the cycle of violence that permeates the ghetto.
In fact, much of the violence portrayed, in City of God, is surrealistic verging on cartoonish. There are two reasons for this. First, when violence becomes a way of life, ordinary evil truly begins to seem banal and loses its capacity to shock. Secondly, childhood is a fleeting experience for the young growing up in the City of God. The mean streets require these boys to become men too quickly and the men, that rule the roost, are mere boys. The violence and corruption is filtered through the prism of misplaced childhood wonder.
The brilliance of City of God is that it still manages to convey the harshness of the environment and be a searing social commentary while letting the viewer come up for air occasionally.
City of God is in many ways similar to, but clearly better than, Gangs of New York.
City of God is, to be as plain and simple as possible, a must see movie.
Running time - 135 minutes
FULL REVIEW OF CITY OF GOD & LINKS TO ALTERNATIVE REVIEWS
Search Feature:
Google It!
2:18:06 AM 
|
