a bit of the old ultra violence

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2005)

it's been a while since anything with the violent intensity of "city of god" has come out in the united states. this film definitely marks a good start for the director Fernando Meirelles and his use of film technique that is very similar to David Fincher, David o Russell, and Guy Ritchie. lots of frantic energy and cinged colors. one of the movie's main antagonists Lil Ze runs around like a miniature rabid Samuel l Jackson circa pulp fiction. the story centers on the criminal lives of children and young adults in Rio de Janeiro. i think that the movie while never making a political point of it lends a good amount support about just what type of anarchy results from the failed international war on drugs, including but not limited to: the creation of a black market, that gets increasingly violent as it is cracked down on, corrupt police tactics, an excess of wealth and desire for firearms for criminal purposes, international civil unrest, and a broad tool that the have-not in society may use to fore-go education in favor of black market profits. all that nonsense aside, this film is powerful in several ways.
the young actors really really manage a tremendous job of translating raw emotion directly to the screen. i'm not sure to many young American actors could have pulled off such a feet of acting. is it even acting? the wonderful pacing and extensive use of flashback to move the movie through a great narrative direction. the setting itself, much like the french setting in ronin, adds a lot of detail and quirkiness to the way the film looks and the overall feel. all these things come together quite wonderfully for one of the best movies i've seen in a while. the only thing i missed is the fate of the lovely angelica is never revealed or mentioned, she simply disappears from the narrator's life and from the film. with the exception of that i i think the film was nearly flawless. this in comparison with the recent viewing of the french movie "those who love me can take the train",and it looks like France's future as a leader in good cinema is uncertain at best and unimaginable at worst.
9 out of 10