WOW! Thanks Anniessa for reccomending this to me...Lets just say everyone needs to see this movie.

City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. It shows a completely different world out there than Edina that’s for sure. However, the characters in this film are about our age. They show what it’s like to be a child in Rio de Janeiro, and a teenager. We seem to still be dependent on our parents, even though we are heading off to college next year. And the kids of Rio are running around just trying not to get shot, even if they are, lets say four years old.

I was really impressed with the acting in this movie. Pretty much the entire cast is under the age of twenty, and these days it’s hard to come by good teen actors and actresses. Lets just say Lindsay Lohan, Hannah Montana, and Zach Efron could never play a role in this film.

The lead role in City of God is Rocket, played by Alexandre Rodrigues. He is the narrator through out the film. He does a stunning job of portraying a boy growing up in the midst of all this crime. His brother is a “hoodlum” and ends up being killed along with half the cast through out the movie. The cool thing about Alexandre is that I noticed from the Internet Movie Data Base, most of the other roles he has played have been on television shows. In the U.S., there aren’t too many actors that play roles in all TV shows and then, “BAM” come out with an exquisite movie like this one.

Lil Dice, played by Douglas Silva, does a fantastic job of showing the dramatic and intense personality change into Lil Ze. Lil Dice is a young boy who follows around the older hoodlums, trying to be “in” with them, and dreams of becoming the “leader” of them; the gangster that everyone either fears or worships in the City of God. The scene when the audience finally sees the change of Lil Dice to Lil Ze is impressively scary. But, I will not forget it. The expression on Douglas Silva’s face, when this change happens, is stunningly creepy. It is hard to explain that change without giving away some of the movies surprises, so go and rent it! Once you watch the movie, you will know the scene and face expression I am talking about.

When Lil Ze is all grown up, played by Leonardo Firmino, there is a scene where they are messing with some little kids, who they overheard talking about Lil Ze. This scene was really hard for me to watch. It felt so real and very disturbing. Darlan Cunha plays the role of “Steak and Fries”, no not the food—that was his name. This disturbing scene is when Steak and Fries has to prove his loyalty to Lil Ze’s gang, if he wants to be accepted by them and become one of them. I don’t want to give anything away, but the expression and emotion channeled through Darlan Cunha’s face is devastating. I was really impressed that a kid his age is able to portray that emotion in such a powerful way. I felt this was through out the whole movie, with almost every character in one scene or another. It’s not really something you can write about in a review, so, the only real advice I have for you is to watch this movie and feel these emotions for yourself.