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| Cidade de Deus, (City of God) (100%) |
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Plot:
Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs fro...( read more
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Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) Recent Reviews
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:December 8, 2008A better (and cleaner) story than Cidade Deus yet not as rewardin. Maybe I'm just shallow. Ha
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MCT:October 10, 2008Episodic collection of tales which offer a fascinating further insight into favela life in the vain of 'City of God'. Runs out of original plots in the later episodes but there are some clever gems.
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MCT:September 11, 2008
Ace: Now there are just the two of us.
Following the success of the brilliant film, City of God, a spinoff TV show was created in Brazil, which ran for four seasons. This film follows the same main characters from the show to give audiences a new story set in the modern day Rio slums.
The story revolves around Wallace and Ace, two lifelong friends, both living in the slums, getting by. Both are about to turn 18 and fatherless. Ace is a young husband and father and Wallace is the nephew of a local gang leader.
One plot strand revolves around Wallace finding his father and developing a relation with him, as well as learning about his past. Another deals with incidents that create issue between the two best friends. This is mainly due to a gang war that erupts and splits the town apart.
Going in to this, it was easy for me to know that this film would not match the brilliance that is City of God. However, this is still a well made and effective film. While City of God worked its way through a few decades, kept in line by its rapid pace, strong acting and visual style, great soundtrack, and overall kinetic spark that gave great life to the film, City of Men works more as a straight forward narration that still benefits from a good visual sense and strong performances.
The film is not as much about portraying the kinds of issues that have plagued this area of Rio or showing the various characters and the numerous connections they have to the city. The film is much more a drama as well, while City of God was able to inject a good amount of humor and energy throughout, this film certainly dwells in its darkness.
These things do not make it a bad film, it certainly does the job, it just isn't as fresh and certainly sits in the zone of comparison to the original film.
Well done film, but lacks a spark.
Ace: [he and Wallace are holding Clayton's hand] Clayton, don't worry 'cause I'm gonna teach you all I know. Let's cross.
Wallace: Okay.
Ace: Clayton, before you cross the street, you have to look both ways. First this way, then that way. Let's go. -
MCT:August 30, 2008
Acerola: [he and Laranjinha are holding Clayton's hand] "Clayton, don't worry 'cause I'm gonna teach you all I know. Let's cross.
Laranjinha: Okay.
Acerola: Clayton, before you cross the street, you have to look both ways. First this way, then that way. Let's go."
It has been estimated that 19% of the population of Rio de Janeiro live in favelas, shacks crowded onto hillsides not far from luxurious apartments and world famous beach resorts. Notorious breeding grounds for poverty, drug addiction, and gang warfare, the favelas, with their picturesque street names like "Dead End Hill," have for decades been the subject of critically acclaimed films such as Hector Babenco's Pixote and, of course, Fernando Meirelles' City of God.
Based on a series that ran on Brazilian TV Globo between 2002 and 2005, written and directed by several Brazilian filmmakers - including Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, Jorge Furtado, Cao Hamburger and Paulo Morelli - and watched by 35 million viewers, Morelli's (who wrote the most episodes for the show) City of Men is a follow-up - not a sequel - to the more flashy Meirelles film. While it lacks the earlier work's frenetic energy, it is more emotionally satisfying and has characters that we care about - 'we' obviously meaning anyone who has seen the show.
The film focuses on two friends, both turning 18 and without fathers. The two boys, Acerola and Laranjinha, (given Americanized names Ace and Wallace in English subtitles - for non-Portuguese speaking people) have unresolved father issues. Laranjinha is trying to locate the father he never knew and Acerola wants to find out how and why his father was killed. Acerola, though only 18, lives with his girlfriend Cris (Camila Monteiro) in one of the famous favelas and is already a father - of the young Clayton (Vinicius Oliveira). Acerola is immature enough to leave Clayton alone on the beach in an early sequence, but must grow up quickly and assume complete responsibility for Clayton's care when Cris takes a job in São Paulo.
Actors Douglas Silva (who played the pint-sized psychopath Li'l Dice in City of God) and Darlan Cunha (who played Steak-and-Fries, the kid who wields the gun in Meirelles' masterpiece's most notorious scene) both appeared in the TV series, and footage from the show is used for flashbacks during the film, presented in a faded colour palette. Both Silva and Cunha are natural actors who've known each other since they were ten years old and it shows: it never feels like they're acting.
Shot by cinematographer Adriano Goldman, who provides sweeping panoramas of the hills, mountains, and beaches, the film begins on the top of "Dead End Hill" on a day so brutally hot we can feel the sweat gathering on our foreheads. Gang members with handguns and automatic weapons led by Midnight (Jonathan Haagensen) decide to head down to the beach, establishing a perimeter of guards who tell the cops that they are on route. The emotional centre of the film is the relationship between Laranjinha and his newly discovered father Heraldo, played with strength and dignity by Rodrigo dos Santos. Heraldo is out on parole after having served fifteen years of a twenty year sentence for robbery and murder. The circumstances of the murder that he committed becomes a central issue in the relationship between Acerola and Laranjinha and secrets about both of their fathers' pasts threaten their friendship and lead to their involvement on different sides of a new eruption of gang violence.
Somewhat melodramatic but never manipulative or false, City of Men transcends the familiar format of hand-held camera hyperactivity and gangster clichés to become a tender and deeply affecting story about abandoned children and how the cycle is repeated from one generation to the next. While the film explodes into warfare between rival gangs led by Midnight and 'Fasto (Eduardo 'BR' Piranha), it is devoid of the usual stylized and frenetic violence. Acerola and Laranjinha are characters we get to know and identify with. We want them to defy the odds and survive until adulthood, though the tragic history of life in the Rio slums is never far from our mind. A fine, more-than-decent companion piece to one of the greatest films ever made. -
MCT:July 26, 2008
not as compelling or authentic as city of god but still well made and affecting all the same.
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MCT:December 26, 2008This is a very good movie. The story is pretty good and the twists although are predictable are pretty good. And I can't complain, there sure are good looking Brazilian men.
Comments
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MrBootyKingposted 371 days ago
