City of God

City of God sets the viewer down in the favelas of Brazil and leaves you to fend for yourself, much like the characters that inhabit the film. Through an aggressive editing style, the film helps the viewer to inhabit the world of the slums: each shot is electric.

The film moves at its breakneck pace because that tempo illustrates what it means to live in a dangerous area like the City of God. Everyday could be one’s last, regardless of whether they are involved in crime or not. Violence is a fact of life in these slums.

City of God mixes incredibly well put together scenes with more frantic hand-held work and somehow still remains a cohesive whole. A pretty piece of exposition chronicles the short yet vital history of an apartment, while the opening scene where Buscape is stuck between a rock and a hard place hooks the viewer immediately. The scene in the nightclub, where all the principal players up to this point gather on a strobe-lit dance floor, is a masterwork in tension. Every character has been painted so convincingly, their motivations known and allegiances drawn, that the viewer knows exactly when the setting changes from a fun night out to a powder keg ready to explode.

City of God feels authentic, despite its flashy film-making techniques. The energy that the movie exhibits reminds me of another film set in Rio: Black Orpheus, another tale where either salvation or tragedy are no more than a samba step away.