Amazing visual tour de force with real substance

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2003)

I went to see this film with the expectation as low as possible not giving the hype of City of God mind, and I walked away stunned.

City of God is simply an astonishing tour de force film reminiscent of Pulp Fiction and Amores Perros, the films that may have inspired City of God's plot structure. My mind boggled with excitement and terror as one witnesses the rise and fall of a murderous drug dealer and gangster named Li'l Ze, remarkedly similar to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (from the non-fiction book "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden) while another person becomes determined to survive the violent turmoil of the slums by escaping to work as an aspiring photographer.
That's not enough. There are character subplots throughout the movies, helpfully marked with the subtitles of each character's destiny at the beginning of every subplot that unravels in the progress.
The film's MTV style may be a bit indulgent and overbearing that could bamboozle the viewer, but it's the overwhelming abundance of substance - in terms of pacing, plot structure, character development, horror of psychological violence as projected on-screen, et cetera - that made the film City of God one of the top-quality - if not the best quality - of any live-action film in the early 21st century alongside equally visually and aesthetically amazing Mexican New Cinema films Y Tu Mama Tambien and Amores Perros. The ending credit provoked the reaction of astonishment and disbelief that it's indeed a true story given cinema verite visual style of the film giving it a sensationalistic feeling.
It's a pity dozens of Academy Award voters walked out in droves out of the City of God screening for consideration of Academy Award Best Foreign Language nomination. The Oscar nomination committee nominated Amores Perros which is also graphically violent but chose to reject City of God on the basis of its objectionable content pertaining to disturbing array of violence and murder meant to depict the reality of witnessing psychological trauma in action.
The Oscars has lost its mind and credibility.