City of Men.

"Set in Rio de Janeiro, City of Men is a quasi-sequel to the international smash City of God and has a similar mix of grit and bleached-out stylization," writes David Edelstein in New York. "But the director, Paulo Morelli, isn't an action virtuoso like his predecessor, Fernando Meirelles (who co-produced here).... City of Men is clunky and often contrived, but there's something haunting about fatherless boys in a blighted place fumbling to teach themselves what it means to be a man."

"Essentially a Rio-set Afterschool Special, the film unimaginatively diagnoses favela violence as an illness wrought by fatherless rearing," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant.

Updated through 3/5.

"City of Men presumes to be about young men's struggles to survive - and escape - a home where forces out of their control exert continuing negative influence," writes Nick Schager. "However, between Morelli's contrived plotting and empty aesthetics, all the film really proves is that God's cruddy, exploit-rather-than-enlighten legacy continues."

"Paulo Morelli directs capably, with a heavy dash of MTV-generation flair: hyper-saturated colors, close-ups of skin glittering with sweat, and a constant patter of gunfire that undergirds the soundtrack like a steady heartbeat," writes Julia Wallace in the Voice.

"The film's focus on the humanity of the slums' inhabitants makes the violence that dictates their lives all the more unbearable, and their survival of it all the more miraculous," writes Mary Block in the L Magazine.

IndieWIRE interviews Morelli.

Updates, 2/28: "At its smartest, City of Men suggests that Brazil is one big dysfunctional family and points out that simply being a father doesn't make you a good one; a final plot twist about Ace and Wallace's fathers recalls Greek tragedy," writes Steve Erickson in the Baltimore City Paper.

"City of Men, while plunging the viewer into an infernal milieu - one representative of the sort that more and more of the world is sliding toward - finally employs despair and chaos as a method of putting the persistence of hope in greater relief," writes Josef Braun in Vue Weekly.

"[F]or all the tragedy and brutality, City of Men is shaped by the uneven, difficult rhythms of fathers and sons, the boys' determination to connect across years of pain and legacies of revenge," writes Cindy Fuchs in the Philadelphia City Paper.

"Breathlessly marshaled to and fro by the screenplay's contrivances and an overeager camera, the actors aren't able to establish themselves as personalities beyond what their inherent veracity allows," writes Nick Pinkerton at indieWIRE. "Each scene falls over onto the next - and though there's nothing inherently wrong with taking that tempo, it takes a defter filmmaker than Morelli to keep the beat."

Updates, 2/29: "Where City of God had the hard-boiled attitude of an exposé filmed on site with hand-held cameras and rapid jump cuts, City of Men is a more conventionally structured melodrama," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "The nihilism of the first movie has been softened enough to suggest that this culture of violence may not be quite so extreme as the earlier movie portrayed. Amid the organized sociopathy in which allegiances are continually shifting, and people are literally shooting one another in the back, true friendships are perilous but not hopeless undertakings."

"The movie plays more like a series finale than a stand-alone feature, but if it leads viewers back to the consistently excellent television series, it's valuable even just as an advertisement," writes Bryan Whitefield at ScreenGrab.

"Mr Morelli's film is a vivid and believable portrait, albeit somewhat overstuffed," writes Darrell Hartman in the New York Sun. "In this case, that soundtrack is no match for the cacophony of intersecting dramas that take over the screen."

"City of Men has its share of problems, but being too entertaining isn't one of them," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club.

"There is plenty of violence and death, but the pace is slowed considerably to explore the human connections and relationships that are also at stake," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times.

"In a way, Meirelles' continued presentation of these favela stories allows for the Rio slums to appear celebrated and glorified, much like the comparable urban gangster films made in the US, only in a more hopeful light," writes Christopher Campbell at Cinematical. "It can't be argued that City of Men necessarily makes the favelas look like a nice place to live, but there is something fantastical about it due to the framing of the film."

Update, 3/2: Josh Getlin talks with Morelli for the Los Angeles Times.

Update, 3/5: Online listening tip. Ed Champion talks with Morelli.

Posted by dwhudson at February 27, 2008 1:19 PM