Okay, I missed this one when it came and went in the theatres. I missed it when it first released on DVD. Even IMDb tried to tell me how great it was, but I wouldn't listen.
I'm here to tell you, this film is the best thing I've seen in the last 12 months, hands down. It also makes the list of top 3 films I've seen in the last five years. City of God is a story of two boys growing up in the favela, the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and the choices they make, the struggle to just get by, their hopes. It's not always pretty, but the occasional violence and street images all serve the story. The cinematography is smooth, and will leave you wrung out from sweating through a dusty Rio summer, and soaking up the sun on Rio beaches.
It's what The Harder They Come might have been with better actors and photography, or what Gangs of New York might have been without the pretention, Hollywood egos, and ham-fisted story-line. It doesn't glorify gangs, or poverty, and yet it makes its characters shine. They earn their triumphs; their failures are crushing.
I can't possibly do it justice. If you haven't already, rent it, buy it, borrow it, but see it.
City of God ★★★★★
I'm here to tell you, this film is the best thing I've seen in the last 12 months, hands down. It also makes the list of top 3 films I've seen in the last five years. City of God is a story of two boys growing up in the favela, the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and the choices they make, the struggle to just get by, their hopes. It's not always pretty, but the occasional violence and street images all serve the story. The cinematography is smooth, and will leave you wrung out from sweating through a dusty Rio summer, and soaking up the sun on Rio beaches.
It's what The Harder They Come might have been with better actors and photography, or what Gangs of New York might have been without the pretention, Hollywood egos, and ham-fisted story-line. It doesn't glorify gangs, or poverty, and yet it makes its characters shine. They earn their triumphs; their failures are crushing.
I can't possibly do it justice. If you haven't already, rent it, buy it, borrow it, but see it.
City of God ★★★★★
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the_monkey_king- Wolfgang Baur
- Kobold Quarterly
Comments
Saw City of God... I agree with you. It's great. And I agree it's hard to describe. Ultimately, it's just a complex story, told well.
So... what are the other two films on your top 3 list?
Comedies never get the credit they deserve in these sorts of Top 10, Top 3, etc lists, but comedy is hard. I've found myself quoting Office Space frequently, and still loving it years after seeing it. Maybe it's the corporate day job that does it.
Lee is the director of Oasis, my favorite movie, and Green Fish, which I remember enjoying even more than Peppermint Candy, and which I discovered at Scarecrow and rented based on one of those cute little staff recommendation cards, which I didn't see so often in the past couple of years before I moved.
Eternal Sunshine is neck-and-neck with the soon-to-be-distributed Best of Youth for my favorite film of 2004.
And I waited far too long to see City of God, too. I think it was on its third visit to Seattle by the time I got to it. Powerful movie that I should own.
Yes, I am the tool of subordinate clauses today, which I don't understand one bit.
Hey, can I get a Live Journal account without actually starting a blog? This "anonymous" thing blows.
Go to http://www.livejournal.com/ to set up your free account.