Wednesday, December 8, 2010

#288: City of God

Directed by: FERNANDO MEIRELLES
2002, TSPDT Rank #620

One of the few 21st century movies to make it onto the 1,000 Greatest Films listing, so obviously you know it's a must see. Maybe it's not as amazing as the hype would have you believe, but still an extremely solid film. It takes a lot of cues from Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas and could be seen as one of the best tributes to that film (although the director might not admit that). It features quick editing, and narration over a great variety of stories and anecdotes of the semi-organized crime in Cidade de Deus (City of God), Rio de Janeiro's roughest slum. It's extremely well-filmed and realistic feeling, considering it was based on real-life events. Of course that could mean a number of things but it certainly adds some emotional flavor to some of the gritty things we see happen in this film. As one of the more violent, exciting, and well-made foreign imports, one can see how City of God gets so much attention. But if you watch it, which I would recommend, I think you'll agree that it's quite worthy of that attention.

(Rating: 8/10)

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