A dark descent into Brazilian ghetto struggles...

Rating: 10/10 (20 August 2009)

Wow, what a darkly profound film. Really gets down into the nitty-gritty details of the street gangster life (at least as it was in decades past) in Brazilian slums. The subtle storyline shifts involving various characters throughout the film may be slightly confusing for some viewers, but the general focus is on Rocket (Buscapé), who wraps up the entire plot of the film nicely at the end. The plentiful violence is never gratuitous; it's always believable. Even when casual cruelty is depicted, it makes sense in the world of the story. In spite of the constant drug dealing shown throughout, it really makes your heart go out to the ghetto denizens of South America, and hope that things ultimately will change for the better there.
I am compelled to strongly congratulate the entire cast, and particularly the directors (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund) for creating such a masterful work, and truly capturing the needed atmosphere of fear and tension to make this movie believable, while also sprinkling in a (very) few lighter scenes to offer a sort of 'let up' to the relentless rush of the storyline forward to the jarring conclusion. Just enough of a surprise twist at the end to (almost) nudge this black gem of a film into the 'thriller' category. But not completely, because this is essentially a street gangster tale, though with a different plot than most, and a somewhat different execution.