City of Men

Like most who saw Fernando Meirelles‘ City of God, I liked it; unlike many, I didn’t love it, and I’m not sure why. It was daring, kinetic and exciting and I became engaged with the characters–especially Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) and Benny (Phellipe Haagensen)–but, it just didn’t connect on any deep level. Maybe it was that the number of characters was too large for my pea brain to keep up with, maybe I needed a coffee or something (I usually do), I don’t know, but there it is.

Now there’s City of Men, based on a Brazilian television series of the same name. This time around, Meirelles has a producing credit, and collaborator Paolo Morelli directs. Although it takes place in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro, it’s not exactly a sequel — it doesn’t follow the same characters, nor does it pick up where City of God left off. It does share some of the same cast, most prominently Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva (Steak ‘n Fries and Li’l Dice in City of God). In City of Men, they play Acerola and Laranjinha, soon-to-be 18-year-olds raised in a notorious favela. As their birthdays approach, Laranjinha becomes increasingly obsessed with finding his father, who’d abandoned him as a child. Meanwhile, Acerola struggles with his role of husband and father.

The boys’ story is counterpointed with that of the gangsters who rule the streets of their favela with drugs and violence. Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen) is the ruling gangster; Fasto (Eduardo ‘BR’ Piranha) is his sometime lieutenant, who wants to be king.

The film opens with an establishing shot of the favela, then Madrugadão’s gang lolling on a roof-top; all Rio is spread spectacularly out beneath them. It immediately sets up a paradox–in the U.S., you’d expect to see a swimming pool and maybe a Porsche; the well-off live on the heights around here, the better to take in the spectacular views. Not so in Rio, or in Meirelles’ and Morelli’s vision of it, at any rate. In Rio, poverty climbs the hills and thugs rule the heights with pistols and automatic weapons.

In the opening sequence, Madrugadão decides to go to the beach, and we see the elaborate precautions taken to keep them safe — machine-guns stationed along their route and a perimeter set as they walk out onto the beach. In this journey, they overturn the usual spiritual geography. Instead of descending into Hell, they are descending from there, into the more fashionable, less poverty-stricken districts of the city. But as they go, they take a bit of Hell with them: guns and drugs and the threat of violence.

It’s at this point that we meet Acerola and Laranjinha — they can’t help but follow the gangsters down onto the beach, and we immediately get a sense of the complex ties that bind all the denizens of the favela. They are ties of family, loyalty, and extreme, debilitating poverty.

Although it introduces the characters and sets up the various conflicts, the first act seems stiff and trite, too overtly “expository.” Perhaps it’s the subtitles–the Portuguese dialog is doubtless full of colloquial dialect, notoriously difficult for translators to succinctly capture. But once the main plot lines kick in — once Fasto’s gang declares war on Madrugadão, Laranjinha finds his father, and old family secrets fray the boys’ friendship — the film comes into its own. Morelli handles the multiple storylines effortlessly, and the action — filmed largely on location in the favelas — takes on that hyper-real kinesis familiar to fans of City of God. Hand-held cameras follow characters down impossible rat-hole streets, vaulting through window, tumbling through doors. Violence — although integral to the story — is relatively restrained. Nevertheless, it’s carried out with a matter-of-fact cool that tells us that violence and sudden death indeed are everyday things in the favelas of Rio.

For all its gangster angst, in the end City of Men is about the friendship between two fatherless boys, and the excellent performances of Cunha and Silva anchor the film. Cunha is especially effective as he searches for his father, then finds him, then loses him again. As his hope for a life with his father fades, and he faces the reality of his unremitting favela life, his heartbreaking vulnerability is written all over his face.

Overall, while City of Men may not be as daring as it’s predecessor, or as groundbreaking in terms of technique and pure, movie-making brio. But it is arguably more accessible and compelling as it focuses on the universal themes of family and friendship and loss. It is a worthy successor to City of God.