Must See! Cinematic work of art with a great story

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2018)

The City of God goes above and beyond when it comes to informing the world as to what really goes on in the slums; in this particular case, in Brazil. After viewing the film, I quickly learned that people got dragged into a particular lifestyle based on who they surrounded themselves with. People either chose to get educated and get a job, or they became gangsters and robbed. The main character, "Rocket", happens to fall somewhere in between. The directors use a unique story-telling method and a variety of special effects to put together this cinematic work of art. Right off the bat, we are given a flash-forward to one of the ending scenes following a hand-held camera running after a chicken. This instantly sets the tone and lets the audience know that they are in for an action packed movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat. As a part of this flash forward, the directors use "Matrix-Like" bullet time to give us a unique perspective as to what kind of situation Rocket is in. Furthermore, the film uses a variety of montages to compress as much info as possible, whether we are learning about a drug operation or the development of a certain character; the use of these montages is an extremely effective method of catching the audience up with what is going on. To initiate and conclude a character's personal narrative, the narrator would directly mention that we were observing someone new. These personal narratives were often concluded with a murder of some sort working in sync with fade outs (almost always indicating changes in plot without direct narration). Overall, I was very impressed with the film's story and cinematic elements. The suspense consistently had me wondering what will happen next and when looking at the production as a whole, it was hard to believe the film was over 15 years old. I would highly recommend it to anyone of age.