A well-made, honest character study that takes its time; a rewarding and refreshing experience.

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2005)

Prior to seeing "City of God" I kept hearing it was like a Brazilian "GoodFellas," and Total Film Magazine said it was one of the best films of the year. Then Roger Ebert said it was one of the best films he'd ever seen and it got intense praise from critics everywhere. I kept wondering why critics continued comparing its style to "GoodFellas." Now I know why.
Like "GoodFellas," this is an extremely visceral movie with a very hard edge; it kept me glued to my seat in a way that few movies do, and in fact - yep, you guessed it - the last time I remember being so enthralled by movie-making and a story was when I saw "GoodFellas" the first time.
"City of God" is about a group of youths growing up in Rio de Janeiros, where you're lucky to live past 20.
It follows one character in particular - a young boy who wants to be a photographer, and abandon his brother's path of violence and bloodshed; he wants to be a respectable journalist, but only if he can survive the mean streets.
"City of God" is a complex film with many different narratives going on at the same time. This non-chronological, refreshing way of telling a story is something I've longed for in cinema recently; formulas are becoming so repetitive I know what's going to happen in a movie just by looking at the poster. Action movies: Stallone or Arnie take on bad guys like it's going out of style. Romantic comedies: Guy gets girl or vice versa. It's routine to the point of nausea.
I don't know if "City of God" is the absolute best film in years, but it ranks pretty high up there. It's a refreshing experience and the only problem I see here is that based on its popularity, we're going to see a lot of American directors trying to ape the style; we all know how that works.