good film, but waaaaay overrated

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2006)

I watched City of God a couple of years ago and was blown away on first viewing. I recently decided to watch it again the other night and was rather disappointed. Basically, COD is a massive case of style over substance - there's basically not much underneath the flashy exterior. For this film to be rated at number 18 in the top 250 is very hard to believe and I would presume that this is due to younger viewers being taken in by its easy charms (I'm only 24 myself though).
On the positive side, the film looks amazing. The cinematography is beautiful, from the warm feel of the 'Tender Trio' story through to the bright colours of the later parts. The camera-work and editing are also first class and give the film a great immediacy, there are also some wonderful montages which really stick in my mind.
The basic plot and milieu of the film is attractive, a potentially excellent base for a great film, but unfortunately it doesn't deliver. The most important problem with COD is a lack of any meaningful structure - the film simply doesn't 'go anywhere'. The only thematic development in the film is the perpetuation and escalation of violence to such a point that you just don't care anymore. I'm not sure how many killings there are in this film but it must getting on towards about 50, and the more this goes on the less impact it has. I understand that the film was making a statement about the 'reality' of life in a notorious favella - that violence is the norm - fine, make the point and move on, integrate the message into a meaningful piece of art. Instead the film just keeps on offering us another 'shocking' killing, and pays as little attention to these acts of violence as the thugs who commit them. Its overkill in more ways than one.
The characterisation in COD is another one of its major downfalls. I just didn't care about any of them, or even have any basic interest in any of them (except maybe Lil Ze). The main character, Rocket, was a nobody in the City of God and also a nobody in the film, City of God. He hardly had any defining character traits - he was scared of guns and wanted to lose his virginity (this basically puts him on the same level as Scooby Doo who was scared of stuff and liked sandwiches - but at least Scooby is funny!). Rocket is dull, he is not funny, not cool, has no passion, little emotion - there's just nothing to care about in him, and the actor playing him fits the part perfectly. I felt that the best character in the film was Lil Ze, mainly because the actor did a pretty decent job in the role. But he is still a hugely underdeveloped character. Lil Ze is a psychotic thug who murders as casually as you or I might pick our nose, he kills about 10 people in a massacre in a hotel at about the age of 10. The deep insights that the film offers us into the creation of such a monster is that he is too ugly to get a girlfriend - is that it?! surely loads of people can't get a girlfriend? There are loads of other characters in the film with much weaker characterisations (e.g. Benny - 'the coolest hood in the COD', who isn't cool at all, just an annoying ponce; Tiago - a loser who hangs around trying to get drugs, he also has a bike; Carrot - a big dealer who doesn't like trouble). One character who did have potential was Knockout Ned, but he ultimately became just another (mostly) mindless perpetrator of violence.
My intention is not to completely trash COD, just to point out its (major) flaws. It is a good film and I can understand its popularity, but no way the 18th best film ever! The film is lovely to look at, and guns, drugs, gangs and Brazil are cool - right? But the film has no emotional core. At no point do you feel anxious, sad, happy, affectionate, uplifted, empowered - you may feel shocked near the start but that soon wears off, and then you don't really feel anything.