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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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65
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59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
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43
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
City of God
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 113 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Bráulio Mantovani
Paulo Lins (novel)
Directed by:
Kátia Lund
Fernando Meirelles
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 17, 2003
DVD: June 8, 2004
Running Time: 130 minutes, Color
Origin: Brazil
Language(s): Portuguese (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, drug content and language
Starring Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Philippe Haagensen, Johnathan Haagensen, Douglas Silva, and Roberta Rodriguez Silvia
Welcome to the world's most notorious slum: Rio de Janeiro's 'City of God.' A place where combat photographers fear to tread, where Police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. This is the true story of a young man who grew up on these streets and whose ambition as a photographer is our window in and ultimately may be him only way out. (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Constant Gardener
TV: City Of Men
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Time Richard Corliss
The film is seductive, disturbing, enthralling -- a trip to hell that gives the passengers a great ride.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Like a bomb exploding in a fireworks factory: It's fierce and shocking and dazzling and wonderful.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A marvelous achievement that refuses to avert its gaze from the poetry and the insane savagery of the hopeless.
Read Full Review >Film Threat K.J. Doughton
Meticulous in its descriptions of well-intended individuals caught up in these ferocious waves of street crime.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
An exhilarating slap in the face, bracing and sexy, smart and visceral, stylish and raw -- the advent of a fabulously exciting new moviemaking talent.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
One of the most uncompromisingly bleak films I've ever seen.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's a trip to Hell and back, and testimony for embittered cynics of all that a movie can be.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The film finds a surprising amount of tenderness and humor beneath the brutality. The laughs may catch in the throat, but that's only a byproduct of City Of God's power to leave viewers breathless.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Breathtaking and terrifying, urgently involved with its characters, it announces a new director of great gifts and passions: Fernando Meirelles.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
One of the most startling, grittily brilliant films in recent years.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
A visual and aural feast that combines elements of classic gangster melodramas, crime epics such as "The Godfather" and playful non-linear narratives such as "Amores Perros," City of God explores a deadly culture while feeling more alive than anything that's hit the big screen in years.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
Emotionally gripping from start to finish, the movie presents an electrifying and unforgettable look at life in a place that God has all but forgotten.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
As the movie's frenetic visual rhythms and mood swings synchronize with the zany, adrenaline-fueled impulsiveness of its lost youth on the rampage, you may find yourself getting lost in this teeming netherworld.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
This is one movie in which you don't feel the long-ish running time, in part because there always seems to be a surprise (as well as a new street guerrilla) around every corner.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Despite the grim, serious nature of the subject matter, Meirelles unearths occasional moments of humor, although they are often of the gallows variety.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Undeniably powerful, the work also comes with its own built-in shield against feeling any one character's difficulties too deeply, or for too long.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
A tightly woven tapestry of extraordinary breadth, and director Fernando Meirelles's control over the material is extraordinary.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
In God's ghetto, as in so many of the world's forsaken places, warring armies of infants brandish their weapons of self-destruction, while politicians bluster and inspectors sleep.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
For those who didn't get enough violence from Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," welcome to City of God.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Octavio Roca
Brutal, tough to watch but impossible to ignore.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Staff (not credited)
Predictably, the violence is overwhelming. But the massacres are glamorized, and the characters look like they're posing for tourism posters.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
It's sensationally well-made: skittery and kinetic, packed with mayhem, yet framed (and narrated) with witty detachment, so that the carnage never seems garish. The film is far from a work of art, but it marks the emergence of a great new action superchef.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
The impressive filmmaking craftsmanship and sharp storytelling skills make this two-hour-plus epic fly by.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It takes a strong stomach to sit through its two-plus hours of non-stop brutality (much of it involving very small children).
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A potent and unexpected mixture of authenticity and flash -- even if this is what happened on the ground, making it worth our time on screen is just beyond the contortionist abilities of even this most acrobatic of films.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Meirelles's picture is so keen to brandish its social wrath, and its spirits are so rampagingly high, that the bruises it inflicts barely last a night. [20 January 2003, p. 94]
LA Weekly John Powers
But if City of God whirs with energy for nearly its full 130-minute running time, it is oddly lacking in emotional heft for a work that aspires to the epic -- it is essentially a tarted-up exploitation picture whose business is to make ghastly things fun.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
In its cinematic approach, though, the film is as slick as any Hollywood thriller, directed by Fernando Meirelles with visual flourishes - jazzy editing, lurid colors, crackling sound effects - that dilute the impact of what might have been an indelible cautionary tale.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 113 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Louis M gave it a10:
Amazing movie, easily one of the best film of this decade. As realistic as it gets. I'm out to buy it, then watch it a few more times.
Buzz T gave it a10:
Really one of the best movies I've ever seen. Underrated and by far not as noticed as it should be.
Nat W. gave it a10:
Only the best film ever! great soundtrack
Juca A. gave it a10:
Great movie from Brazil. Realistic and well done.
Jack B. gave it a9:
Great film in every way, deserves the plaudits and i would say this is a film that everyone who loves film should try and watch. An incredible real life story, told in a very powerful way that will have you gripped from start to finish. Im not a huge fan of the "gangster" film genre having been disappointed by some of the films in the area that are considered masterpieces, however I challenge anyone to truthfully say that this is below the level of those films. This truly deserves the title of being a Masterpiece.
Thomas A. gave it a10:
In my top 5 of Gangster movies, fabulous and scary this is a film everyone should see.
Nick A. gave it a10:
One of the most powerful dramas of the decade is 'City of God.' Fernando Meirelles proves that he can run with the most acclaimed directors in modern cinema with this film. His disciplined style is vigorously enchanting as much as it is appealing. For his furious and violent tale, 'City of God,' he portrays, with shocking realism, the slums of Rio de Janeiro from the late 60’s to the mid 80’s, where crime was the way out and those not involved were the suckers. But among these criminals and suckers is a minority of those dedicated to the goodness that is often overlooked in cities as torn as Rio, and Meirelles exemplifies that notion through a young photographer and the story he comes to tell. The film follows – and is narrated by – a boy named Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), whose dream is to become an accomplished photographer. Growing up, Rocket was raised in a lower-class quarter of Rio’s Ciudad de Deus (City of God), in which most of his peers had aspirations of becoming the City of God’s next big thing – whether the path they led was bright or familiar. Among them was Lil’ Dice, a young boy who ran with a gang of hoodlums whose main intention was stealing, though had killed before. As years progressed, both Rocket and Lil’ Dice meandered down very different corridors; Rocket found fulfillment in honesty and kindness, whereas Lil’ Dice eventually found himself the city’s most infamous drug-runner, Ze Pequeno, or Lil’ Ze. Soon before long, the City of God is ravaged by unseen violence, led by Lil’ Ze, and Rocket is capturing the horrific footage via his handheld camera. While Rocket’s intentions focus on keeping down an honest, clean path, he finds that he can make amends with both Lil’ Ze and the local police, by submitting photos of Ze and his entourage to the tabloids. Win-win for both, eh? Not quite. Even those who find success, struggle in the City of God, and by film’s end that fact is recognized by all – and it’s not soon forgotten either. The screenplay, adapted by Braulio Mantovani from Paulo Lins’ novel of the same name, allows viewers to relate and reside with its characters and surrender their absolute emotion to a film that exhausts each and every emotion imaginable. Retrospectively, Meirelles’ demand for the viewer’s attention, through unwavering brutality and almost dizzying camerawork, makes for intense movie-viewing and enthralling entertainment. Additionally, the film carries a surrealistic beauty – and is shot with an overexposed lens that brightens the photography and implies perfectly the authenticity of the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro – that elevates the heart when the movie reaches burrowing depths. All in all, 'City of God' is flawless; and with an array of resonating performances and meticulous direction, it is sure to be one of the greatest films one will ever see.
