City of Men

This is my short little 180 word review that I submitted to my college's newspaper. They said they wanted it short so I couldn't really fit much into it. I figured I might as well post it here, too since they haven't published it yet. I'll be really upset if they don't, because this girl definitely turned hers in later than me and hers was definitely published in yesterday's issue (Friday, Feb 29). I mean, I could write a better one if I could write more!! Ah well. Such is life. Such is being at the bottom of the power ladder of a newspaper.

City of Men, directed by Paolo Morelli as a film adaptation of the TV-series of the same name and the companion piece to Fernando Meirelles’s critically-acclaimed City of God, tells the story of two friends whose lives ebb and flow with the unpredictable world they live in. Ace, an 18 year-young father, and Wallace, his best friend who is eager to learn of his past, have grown up together in the favelas (the slums) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the commonality of having a father figure absent from their lives. Simply and linearly told (save the flashbacks that occur with each plot revelation), the normalcy of the boys’ lives are shaken up by the discoveries of their fathers’ hidden histories and the dangers of a long, unrelenting gang war between two opposing hills. Although it will inevitably garner comparison to Meirelles’s masterpiece, City of Men has the substantial storyline, the developed character arcs, the stunning imagery (with a gritty cinematography similar to its companion), the solid direction, and an emotional conclusion that allows it to stand strongly as a piece of its own.