For the rest of this post, I'm going to call the movie Cidade de Deus, because I'm Brazilian, and that's the original title.

Cidade de Deus was on my watchlist for a bit. I wanted to watch it, but I thought it was going to be just people making a big deal out of a movie that is amazing for Brazilian cinema standards (which are very low), but average for American cinema standards. I watched a video praising it, and, still with the expectations of a 7/10 movie at best, I watched it. I completely ate my words.

Let's begin with a simple equation. Low budget + inexperienced actors + a country that isn't known for good cinema = a bad movie, right? Except when it doesn't. And that's what happened in Cidade de Deus. The secret ingredient was reality. The reality that Brazilians, and specially those who live in favelas (which is like the hoods of Brazil, where they throw poor people and people of color in). If you saw Cidade de Deus and thought the violence was unrealistic, you're just too privileged to know what happens outside of your country. I'm not even trying to offend anyone, that's just the truth. This is not a movie that will resonate with American audiences as much as Brazilian audiences. I have to admit, I don't even think it can fully resonate with me, since, while I am Brazilian, I'm white, and I don't live in a favela. An example of how reality affected this movie is the actors. You want to know how the movie has such good acting when the actors have practically 0 experience? Because that's technically not acting. Acting is to pretend you're something you're not. For it to be acting, they'd have to pretend they live in a place full of violence and crime. Keyword being pretend. They aren't pretending, this is the life of these people. That's what I mean when I say reality made this movie what it is. And that reality hasn't changed. I constantly had to remind myself this was a movie made 20 years ago that took place 50 years ago, because the way these characters talk, act, the way the favela looks, it's all still very modern. The only thing that dates it is lack of cellphones. This reality also helps with the budget problem. They don't need big shootouts, or explosion, because this is not an action movie, this is almost a documentary, not only because it's based on actual events, but because it documents the reality (yes, I know I keep using that word) Brazilians live in. Another way this movie sheds light on Brazilian organized crime is, well, how unorganized it is. Think about movies like Godfather, whenever they killed someone, they had to do it in an area where the body wouldn't be found, and when they had to do it like that, the killer would die or get arrested for it, or they had to go away for a long amount of time. In Cidade de Deus, they kill people left and right, because everyone knows they're criminals. They don't try to hide it from the public. They even get their pictures taken for the newspaper. And what happens? Nothing. Because the police is being paid by them and the people are too afraid of them to try anything.

There are two things I love about this movie that americans will sadly never be able to enjoy as much. First, it's the swearing. Brazilian swearing always feels better than American swearing, it'd just way more powerful. The best comparison I think of is that American swearing is like the word "very", while Brazilian swearing is like the word "stupendously". When you say "this movie is very good", the "very" goes almost unnoticed. Not a lot of presence. But when you say "this movie is stupendously good", "stupendously" takes center stage, and it just emphasizes how good the movie is. It's pretty hard to explain, Brazilian swearing just feels better. The second thing is the soundtrack. This movie's soundtrack is unbelievably good, and it's the most pre-funk (a music genre that got popular in recent years, and it's not the same as American funk) Brazilian soundtrack ever. Tim Maia, Raul Seixas, Cartola, all of these legendary Brazilian singers have at least one song in the movie, it's the Pulp Fiction soundtrack of Brazilian movie soundtracks in terms of how good it is.

This is movie is also very impressive on a technical level. Fernando Meirelles is a great director, and the cinematography is some top-tier stuff. Not like Kubrick tier, but I'd say like nearly Fincher tier. Brazil has never been a country that valorizes the subtlety of art, so I appreciate it a lot.

Overall, out of personal enjoyment, I'd give this movie an 8/10, but that doesn't feel right. Just for how important this movie is to Brazil and the cultural impact it has, I'll give it a 9/10. Cidade de Deus is a masterpiece. Go watch it for the plot and characters alone if you haven't, even if you're a white american.