by LordCantiDuD » Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:06 am
City of God (CIDADE DE DEUS)
Director Fernando Meirelles has an eye for realism and detail. The most disturbing thing about City of God is the fact that the killers are children playing adult games before they can be children. It is a well known fact that these kids' gangs created terror, not only in the favelas where they lived, which was unfortunate, but they mugged, robbed and just plain terrorized the big cities in Brazil. News about street children being shot in the streets of Rio or Sao Paolo were perceived as criminal because of the ages, but one can get a clearer picture in this film by coming to the realization these same children were killing real grown ups and getting away with murder.
8/10
and
Elephant
This movie is a fictional story, but it is essentially a retelling of the Columbine High massacre. It only spans maybe an hour in time, but it coves the points of view of a lot of people, of victims to bystanders to the murderers themselves, from what the media was telling the public who wasn't there to see it. It's a particularly important piece because of its storytelling style. Van Sant has the camera follow one character at a time, on the day of the murders, and lets the story tell itself. It is about as neutral as one can get, really. Van Sant doesn't use foreshadowing, he doesn't frame any character up as a particular archetype, he doesn't play ominous music, and the dialogue is about as inane and high school-ish as you can get, very realistic actually. There are no jokes. the is an exaggeration in all off all characterÃs stereotypes, exspeiclly in the murders who are watching stuff on WWII, looking up guns on the internet, and wait theyÃre different so they my be gay. Over all it another good Gus Van Sant film 6.5/10. I'm looking foreward to his next movie Last Days with Michael Pitt stars in a Seattle-set rock & roll drama as a musician whose life and career is reminiscent of Kurt Cobain's.
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