City of God

So I was recently able to cross a movie off my list of must see films; this film was City of God. I heard so many good things about this film recently that I had to see it. So I made some popcorn, sat down, and watched this amazing film.

A crime drama set in the slums of Brazil is something I never would thought of, but I'm sure that there is much truth to this story. The director Fernando Meirellles is well known for his films like Blindness and The Constant Gardener. The Constant Gardener tackles the real life issue of medical companies using third world countries as test areas for their drugs, and gives expired medication to the poor and sick, all for a tax write-off. The movie deals with death as an every day occurrence, and in the slums of Rio De Janeiro it very well could be.

The cinematography in it is amazing. The opening scene is a combination of fast a fast paced Spanish guitar with perfectly cut together clips of a group of hoodlums chasing a chicken. The rest of the film follows suit. The characters are easy to like or to hate, and you do feel saddened when they are dispatched.

Ebert and Roper called this film "one of the best you'll ever see". I agree and disagree with that statement. As far as the topic and cinematography goes this is a film like I have never seen before, a dark horse that comes out of nowhere to astound and entice the viewer. But the plot like was a bit rough, things come out of nowhere with little or no explanation before hand, and leave you confused until they explain it five minutes later. Overall I really enjoyed the film and have seen it twice in four days, but does it crack my top 25 films, no.