Sometimes I struggle to get things done. I struggle to keep up to date, I struggle to stay in the know, and I most definitely struggle to embrace many of the hundreds of cinematic 'masterpieces' that have graced the Silver Screen over the past century. But, as I have now found myself only working 4 days a week instead of the intended 6, I have a monday and a tuesday free each week whilst everyone else is stuck in college. So instead of sitting here at the beginning of each week, waiting for the weekend to come, I am going to spend my time catching up on all of these movies that I have somehow avoided watching all these years.

Some will be obvious and classic (Citizen Kane, Brazil etc) whilst others will be modern works. Let's begin.

I had read the rave reviews by the major publications, saw the trailer and contemplated renting it. I never got round to it mainly because I never found myself in the right mood/frame of mind to watch a 'subtitled arthouse flick'. Now, after watching the movie, I realise that my preconceptions of what this movie was were completely inaccurate.

I was lead to believe that City of God was some sort of foreign, visual metaphor on crime. I was surprised to find that in actuality, it's a straight-up gangster flick. With added sincerity.

City of God follows the path of Rocket, a young, aspiring photographer, unable to live the life of crime as so many of his peers do. However, Rocket is not the films main focus - if anything, he is a bit-character, serving mainly as a narrator and providing us with a light of optimism in an otherwise bleak film. City of God is instead based around Li'l Dice, an insecure, homocidal maniac who is hell-bent on taking over the City of God and striking fear into its inhabitants.

What makes this film so compelling is the way in which it takes an unbiased stance on the criminal activity in the City of God. We understand that crime is necessary for these people to survive, and as a result, we actually feel empathy for these hoodlums. Even characters that do not grace the screen for a lengthy period of time, such as Knockout Ned, are worthy of our emotion as an audience.

The Directors must also be commended on creating one of the all-time GREATEST movie villains, Li'l Dice. Here is a character that we want to see dead from the beginning of the film to the very end. He truly is a masterpiece in his own right, and even though he possesses some of the typical villainous traits (bloodthirsty, insecure) he never verges on cliche. Again, this is because of the large amount of humanity that has been injected into him, and whilst never outwardly explaining to us how he became so utterly insane, we somehow understand the twisted logic within his evil decisions.

If you are against the concept of a movie containing 'kids with guns', then City of God is definitely not for you. There are some extremely upsetting/disturbing scenes that become even more hard-hitting when you discover that the territory City of God is shot in is known for its underage criminal activity and even some of the extras used were notorious criminals in that region. There is one particular scene that involved a child making a decision with a gun that was so realistic it made me donate to charity.

But for everyone else that's a little bit more open-minded and unimpressionable, this is a wonderful example of storytelling and cinematography, and I heartily suggest you watch it.

Rating:



9 kids with guns.