speechless

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2003)

bang, the first minute of city of god. Fast cutting, overlapped sound effects, wonderful camera shots, great music. What a way to start. And the brilliance of the first 5 minutes, is just a prelude of whats to come. Usually telling a story of this scope and size is very difficult to pull off, but the director easily succeeds in keeping an audience's eyes wide open throughout the whole picture. It's most definatly shocking. Some of the scenes are hard to watch, with some of it's documentary style approach. It is also very funny, and very poignant. Being a foreign film, i knew none of the actors, but it just made it all so much better. The friendships really seem genuine, and when some of the friendships fall, you literally feel the emotion pour out of the screen. Lil ze, the more deadly character in the film is played brilliantly, and whenever he's on screen, looking towards the camera, you almost feel obliged to walk away. Like you are being bullied or something.
It's also a movie which pays off, and doesn't disappoint you with a cop out ending. But even it did, you could forgive it for everything that came before, and if you are like me, then you'll leave this film speechless.