Dave S
Five years after the fantastic City of God comes the follow-up, City of Men. Like its predecessor, it is set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and follows the day-to-day gang violence that ravages the community. This time around, the story of friendship and survival focuses on two young men as they try to make sense of the madness that surrounds them. With the assistance of his friend Ace, Wallace searches for the identity of his birth father, a career criminal who has recently been released from prison for a murder he committed fifteen years earlier. While the film's style may be off-putting to some (it's filled with hyper-active handheld camerawork and rapid-fire editing), it certainly suits the chaotic atmosphere of the movie. City of Men, like City of God, is also filled with naturalistic performances from a primarily non-professional cast of actors. For those who loved the original, City of Men is a must-see.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/10/23
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Audience Member
Muito emocionante e intenso. Excelente relação entre os personagens principais, amo demais!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
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Audience Member
Emotional portrait of how it is to grow up in Rio's favelas.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
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Audience Member
A look at life in the streets of Rio de Janeiro is gritty but not always engaging.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
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Audience Member
A bit too melodramatic and it will unfortunately be compared to the much superior City of God. When it focuses a bit more on the gang and poverty aspects it is a much more interesting movie, but the movie gets bogged down early by an uninteresting plot involving two kids and their dads.
While the cinematography is still nice, this movie is just no City of God. It's hard to get into because the first half hour or so is just so uninteresting. Even now I can't remember some of the characters names or how they related to each other. The ending is also way too ridiculous and almost like something out of a soap opera. Why the one friend would shoot his other friend or even think of doing so was just so unlikely and made the Ace character far less likable (and because of his neglect for his son and constant whining it already was difficult to like him).
Still, it's a decent watch for those who are huge fans of City of God. It's like revisiting the same place, only it's not as memorable as the first time. If you haven't seen City of God, go watch that first. If you have seen it and you want to see more, then this isn't so bad.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
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Audience Member
"City of God" was harsh enough, and now, God is leaving things in the hands of men, and teenaged men, no less, so this ought to be real hardcore. For those of you who wanted to see more of kids being brutal gangsters in "City of Gold", then this is the coming-of-age film for you, you sick, demented freak. More than that, this film is for those jerks who say that you can't make a decent sequel, or TV shows into decent movies... you know, because this film is based on a TV show. Yeah, I hadn't heard about the "City of Men" series, but then again, as much Mexican TV as we're being bombarded with in the States, I'm not especially enthusiastic about splitting hairs and actively seeking out Brazilian TV. I was offensive enough with my jokes about black people in Brazil with my opener for "City of God", and now I'm poking fun at Portuguese, so, needless to say, I better not visit Brazil any time soon if it's this brutal. Man, Rio de Janeiro is supposed to be pretty, but it has a dark side, and in case you didn't get that after a major film and four seasons of a TV show, here's yet another reminder that the filmmakers felt that you needed. Hey, I'll take it, not just because I'm apparently four seasons behind on this show, but because this film was reasonably worth waiting for, which isn't to say that this is on the level of its predecessor, falling, or rather, dragging itself shy of its potential.
Running not but a little over 100 minutes, this film is a good deal shorter than "City of God", and I suppose that it's therefore not as overlong, but it is overdrawn enough to spend too much time with certain story layers and segments, to where the eventual shifts jar so greatly that the narrative ends up feeling pretty unnervingly disjointed. If the structural dragging does nothing else, it leads to limp spells in material which in turn lead to dry spells in thoughtful, perhaps even too thoughtful direction by Paulo Morelli, whose tension is adequate, but hardly compared to the intensity of Fernando Meirelles' direction, no matter how hard the filmmakers work to emulate elements of the predecessor. There are a few twists and turns to this sequel, but in so many ways, this film shamelessly succumbs to the formula of its predecessor, which was itself formulaic, thus, you end up with a follow-up to an almost innovative drama that is ironically hardly unique, being almost tired, particularly with its melodramatics. Although "City of God" was often too real to be all that comforting as a grimy drama, it was at least consistently genuine, and while this film is far from contrived, it does feel a little manufactured with its histrionics at times, as though it is ambitiously struggling to sustain a sense of conflict and weight, through all the limitations in dramatic meat. There is a fair bit to complain about, of course, but when you get down to it, the biggest shortcomings seem to be of a natural persuasion within more narratively tamed and less layered story concept, whose interpretation simply tries to juice things up. All of the dragging, histrionics and overall ambition ironically end up driving you to focus more on how there's only so much potential to this drama, which is promising, make no mistake, but just not as juicy as its predecessor, at least enough to handle the consequential shortcomings' blows and retain reward value. The final product ultimately succumbs to underwhelmingness, but it at least fights a good enough fight to border on overcoming the shortcomings, even going so far as to rest upon the shoulders of compelling style.
Allowed to play with his modernist flare a little bit more, without the accompaniment of Ed Cortês, Antonio Pinto turns in a score that is still unevenly used, yet subtly, but surely more unique than the score to "City of God", being rich with a fast-pace, when not tastefully tender Brazilian flare that colors up the film about as much as cinematography by Adriano Goldman which, while arguably too derivative of the visual style of "City of God", all but captivates with a ruggedly shady grit that fits this drama like a glove. Stylistically, the film excels, often as surely as it predecessor did, and sometimes more so, and such style does do a lot to keep the film engaging, partly through its flavoring up entertainment value with aesthetic value, and largely through its fitting the nitty and gritty, yet tasteful story. Thinner, more formulaic and more disjointed, this film's story is lacking compared to that of "City of God", even in concept, but there's also something more compelling about this more intimate crime thriller, whose retaining a degree of tension establishes a degree of potential that is ultimately done an injustice in too many places in overambitious storytelling. Even Elena Soarez's and Paulo Morelli's script tries too hard in too many places, but when it finds realization through structural and dramatic excess, it sees well-rounded characterization and a certain surprisingly tasteful thoughtfulness that is augmented by Morelli's direction, which, for all its being so overblown, yet still not as biting as the direction of the predecessor, bits when it most ought to. Mind you, that simply means that this film is adequate as a thriller which fails to consistently engross, but it's nonetheless a relative success as a pretty engaging, if often sloppy, and ultimately intimate, character-driven drama. If nothing else keeps the heart of this dramatic character thriller pumping, it is the acting, something that I admittedly find more impressive here, due to there being more material for the cast to bring to life with charisma and layers, with leads Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha most standing out with their chemistry and individual nuances. These very young talents, at not even 20, drive the final product a respectable distance, and while the final product isn't quite pushed to a rewarding state that it couldn't achieve merely with strong performances, the acting, in addition to other elements which meet ambition with inspiration, engage plenty, just not as much as it could have.
In conclusion, the structure is draggy and disjointed, while a lack of the tension from the predecessor, plenty of conventions and a fair deal of melodramatics, all behind a story of only so much scope, secure the final product as underwhelming, but just barely, as sharp score work and visual style compliment the flare of a story that is truly done justice by the tasteful, if overambitious writing and direction, and solid performances - particularly those of Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha - that secure Paulo Morelli's "City of Men" as, maybe not as rewarding, but as serviceably compelling as a continuation in a brutal portrayal of the dark side of Rio de Janeiro.
2.75/5 - Decent
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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