City of God - March 2003

Recommended
In Portuguese with English subtitles

In Rio de Janeiro’s poorest area, there is a slum called "City of God." It is poverty and lawlessness and hopelessness unlike anything we could ever imagine in this country. "City of God" is the most violent movie I’ve seen in recent memory, yet none of it could be called gratuitous. The city is a tough place and a movie about it has to be gritty and sweaty and violent.

In "City of God," we follow a dozen boys for about a decade. Most do not make it to adulthood. In the Rio slums, crime rules, and some of the boys start out as petty thieves and end up as major drug dealers, while the narrator tries to play it straight and avoid getting caught in any crossfire. "City of God" is not a place anyone would want to live but it is an important place to visit for two hours.

[2009: Oh my goodness! They outsourced this movie to India and called it "Slumdog Millionaire!"]