Movie Review - 'City of Men'

City of Men

Starring Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha, and Rodrigo Dos Santos
Directed by Paulo Morelli
Rated R

City of Men almost can’t win. When you’re the follow-up to one of the greatest films of all time, it’s hard to be evaluated on your own merits.

Technically not a sequel to 2002’s City of God, the Brazilian masterpiece that currently ranks as the 16^th greatest film of all time on the Internet Movie Database, City of Men is more a continuation of a set of circumstances than it is the story of characters we had grown to know.

Set in the drug-ruled slums of Rio de Janeiro, City of Men is a heartbreaking and sobering look at lives that more than likely have a future that involve dealing drugs, fighting gangland wars, and a young, brutal death. The film gets its strength from a connection its two main characters share, a friendship built on loyalty and a sense of survival.

Acerola and Laranjinha (Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha) live on Dead End Mountain, an appropriately named hell of drugs and poverty. Nearly 18, Ace already has a wife and son while his best friend can only call his grandmother family, although he’s about to embark on a painful journey to discover who his father really is. Both boys are on the verge of becoming men, and it’s interesting to see them mature against a backdrop where kids carry guns by the time they’re ten and very rarely even make it to adulthood.

City of Men is an extension of a Brazilian television series of the same name that became popular after the release of City of God. That series and this film were produced by Fernando Meirelles, who received an Oscar nomination for directing the original. The visual imprint he made with that film is mostly intact here, although that would figure, too, since the director, Paolo Morelli, was behind the camera for several episodes of the series.

As a former TV show, City of Men is able to call on archived footage of Silva and Cunha as younger teenagers and split the contemporary actions of the characters with brief glimpses to earlier in their development and friendship. Astute viewers of City of God will also notice that Silva, who played the demonic Lil Ze in that film, has done a 180 degree turn as Ace.

As good a film as this is, it’s better in a complementary role to one of the all-time greats. So definitely check this out, but for full effect, see City of God first.