60
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Meirelles's picture is so keen to brandish its social wrath, and its spirits are so rampagingly high, that the bruises it inflicts barely last a night. [20 January 2003, p. 94]
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
In its cinematic approach, though, the film is as slick as any Hollywood thriller, directed by Fernando Meirelles with visual flourishes - jazzy editing, lurid colors, crackling sound effects - that dilute the impact of what might have been an indelible cautionary tale.
60
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
A potent and unexpected mixture of authenticity and flash -- even if this is what happened on the ground, making it worth our time on screen is just beyond the contortionist abilities of even this most acrobatic of films.
100
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
A marvelous achievement that refuses to avert its gaze from the poetry and the insane savagery of the hopeless.
100
New York Post by Megan Lehmann
Like a bomb exploding in a fireworks factory: It's fierce and shocking and dazzling and wonderful.
50
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
Undeniably powerful, but also rather numbing.
100
The film is seductive, disturbing, enthralling -- a trip to hell that gives the passengers a great ride.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
As the movie's frenetic visual rhythms and mood swings synchronize with the zany, adrenaline-fueled impulsiveness of its lost youth on the rampage, you may find yourself getting lost in this teeming netherworld.
50
Full of action, but no soul.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
It takes a strong stomach to sit through its two-plus hours of non-stop brutality (much of it involving very small children).
Cinematographically slick and undeniably powerful, City of God is full of both action and soul, marching to the beat of unrelenting samba music for the entirety of the film.
This is the kind of film that sticks in your mind long after you see it. I was so transfixed by this movie, unable to look away despite how brutal it was. It's a tough watch, violent and unrelenting, but that only makes the unexpected moments of beauty even more beautiful. If you can stomach it, you will be absolutely glued to the screen.