City of God
City of God
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
Mike reviewedOctober 11, 2024
City of God is a gritty and realistic film that immerses you into the action and has your attention from the first to the last frame
"Gangsters never stop, they just take a break"
This film is one of the best films I have ever seen. There is not a single dull moment within the 2 hour runtime. What impressed me the most is how realistic it felt. It's almost like you're watching a documentary. This enhanced the emotional impact of the events that happened during the film.
The plot was perfect. The way multiple events and timelines connected to eachother, was something like I had never seen before. This was all enhanced by the voice-over narration of Rocket. Rocket told us a story and we as the viewer were experiencing that story. Voice-over narration in films is often a hit or miss, with City of God it was definitely a hit. It had the right balance between showing and telling. The voice-over narration guides you through the story and plot, but it never distracts you from them.
Not only was the protagonist a very interesting character, but all the other characters were too. Rocket was the protagonist of this story, luckily he wasn't the only character that had great character development. Characters felt believable and fleshed-out, which created some strong and diverse archetypes. This was also enhanced by the tremendous acting, especially by the children. I have never seen children act like this before. Their roles required a lot of emotional expressions and they absolutely nailed it to the point that it felt realistic.
The cinematography was beautiful and immersive. This film was shot on 16 mm, which created the gritty aesthetics that fitted very well with the story and plot. On top of that there were also a lot of handheld shaky scenes, which also contributed to the gritty and realistic feel.
The dynamic staging and close-ups immersed the viewer into the action. It felt like you was part of the action, as if you were really there instead of just looking at it.
Not all shots were shaky, there were also nice looking steady shots that provided the viewer with some breathing time so they could think about the events. Overall the cinematography was very unique. There were some techniques used that felt very playful, an example of this is; the low framerate shots that placed the focus on what character do within that shot. Another example is simultaneously showing 2 different shots to visualize a scene from multiple perspectives.
Although this film was very gritty and realistic, I do have a feeling that this will not be my last time watching this film.
Letterboxd: Mike_v_E