Week 21: City of God

I’ll be honest that I thought City of God was yet another one of my depressing foreign-language documentaries and it was practically the last thing I wanted to see in my mailbox on Friday afternoon after a hectic workweek. I was in the mood for lighter fare, like – say – a madcap Will Ferrell movie involving a cologne called Sex Panther. But alas, City of God it was. Grant, make mine a double, we're in for it tonight.

But about ten minutes into this movie, we were both hooked. I’m here to testify that this is one amazing movie. Seriously now. I am not being one-bit sarcastic. It's just phenomenal.

It’s a story about the rise and fall of a vicious gang in the notorious Rio slum known as the City of God. It's told through the perspective of one boy, Rocket, who’s trying to avoid the pitfalls of hoodlum life. Rocket weaves us through the lives of the hyper-colorful characters who populate the slum.

And even though the move is filled with intense brutality and violence often involving small children who have assumed the roles of vicious gang leaders, the storytelling aspect of the movie fills it with a big entertainment value and even a fair amount of humor and humanity.

I have been bugging everyone in my office to put this movie at the top of their Netflix queues. And now I'm bugging you. Did you hear me? Right now. Do it. What are you still sitting here for? If you won’t do it for me, do it for God. Or his city. Whatev.