An Underrated Gem

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2018)

City of God Review
This movie had me on the edge of my seat even after I learned that it was in a foreign language. The City of God puts you right in the action of all the gang violence and the director does an incredible job with the editing and lighting such as in the scene where Benny is killed. Cidade de Deus disorients the audience in this scene just like how the characters were with many close up shots and blinding lights. The last thing that I expected was for Benny to get killed because he was one of the only major characters that wanted to get away from all the violence. To add to his unexpected death, his killer was a man that loved Benny, and this death scene speaks to the chaotic lifestyle in the Brazilian favelas that keep you guessing.
Leandro Firmino (Lil Ze) does an incredible job with his role as his becomes enraged by the slightest inconvenience which makes the audience feel scared of a teenager. A gang leader needs to be strict but Firmino takes it to a whole other level as he seems inhumane as he executes children without any regrets. Some of the credit for the great acting in the movie goes to Cidade de Deus as he and his team recruited amateur actors who lived in the favelas themselves. This made the story and its tone as accurate as possible and it is hard to believe what took place in the slums over four decades ago. The director also does a very good job matching the personalities of the actors who played the children characters and the older characters as they grew up in the movie. Lil Ze was just as diabolical when he was only around eight years old.
The tight framing and jerky camera movements added to the emotion that the viewers have when watching this movie because it helps them understand that anything can happen in these favelas. Bad things often happen to good people, Rocket got his girlfriend stolen from him by Benny, and that added to the intensity of the movie. I never knew what was gonna happen as it seemed like the worst can happen to the main characters at any moment. I love it when a movie is unpredictable so I would give this movie an A+.