A really slick and impressive gangster movie

Rating: Null/10 (25 December 2003)

In the slums of Rio de Janeiro is an area called the city of God. In this area children often do not make it to adulthood. Rocket is a young man looking to use photography to get himself out of the slums and away from crime. We follow his story from a child through the 60's and 70's in the slums where he is witness as children Lil' Dice and Bene grow up to become the heads of the gangs, using violence and murder to increase their power.
I had missed this in the ONE art cinema in the city I live in and had to wait for the DVD to come out. It was very much worth the wait. I wanted to resist the urge to call this film `the Brazilian Goodfellas' simply because everyone else has said it - but it is a fitting description. Like that film, this is a sprawling story of crime and violence across several decades. And like Goodfellas it is violent, stylish and a great story that is engaging. The overall plot focuses on the rise of Lil' Ze and the violence around him, as seen through the eyes of Rocket.
Opening with a stylishly shot standoff, the film jumps back over twenty years and begins to introduce a range of characters who come and go throughout the film to give a back story of violence and crime. The film jumps around quite a bit but it serves to build up a picture of the area and the characters involved. The violence is not gory but it is sudden and shocking - children killing children, bloody sudden deaths and so on; but it is not sensationalised but rather very depressing and down to earth.
The direction is very slick and the overall production and feel of the film is one of style and imagination. The opening of a 360 pan around Rocket is an indication of the style than runs through the whole film. It even manages to have a mix of styles - fast cutting edits work best in moderation, which is exactly what this film does. The soundtrack is great and the film definitely owes a debt to Scorsese.
The cast are very talented and very natural considering that few of them have any experience acting. Alexandre Rodrigues is great as Rocket even if he gets overshadowed by Leandro Limrino attention grabbing Ze (in the same way as we all remember Joe Pesci over Ray Liotta). The rest of the cast is almost perfect to a boy. Even the young children are convincing and powerful and there are no bum notes in the performances - it is very impressive but the sad thing is that I suspect that for many of them, this was not a stretch as this is really their life.
Overall this is a tremendous film - easily the best of the year. It is slick and stylish but not at the expense of the story, which is a dizzy collection of characters and action. If you like Goodfellas then you will simply love this film. Hell, if you like cinema - you will like this film.