--- title: "City of God: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/city-of-god/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/city-of-god" critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # City of God (2002): what the critics said Critics' score 81 from 8 reviews: 7 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics respond strongly to City of God, with praise clustering around Fernando Meirelles’s urgent storytelling, the location photography and the editing’s speed and clarity. The non-professional cast also earns repeated notice for finding tenderness and humour amid the gang violence. Across the positive reviews, the favela emerges as more than a setting: its changing conditions and the children drawn into crime give the film its force. The main disagreement concerns what the film’s style does to its subject. Sight and Sound sees a clear examination of violence’s causes and consequences, while Variety worries that the slickness sometimes approaches glamour. Slant Magazine admires the storytelling but finds too little moral ambiguity. The New Yorker offers the sharpest reservation, arguing that the energy and violence largely fail to leave a lasting emotional mark. The spread is broadly favourable, then, but the reservations concern more than excessive pace. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 95/100 (inferred from the text). 24 January 2003. The film is a breathtaking, terrifying plunge into the slum gangs of Rio that announces director Fernando Meirelles as a major talent. It earns comparison to Scorsese’s GoodFellas through its urgent storytelling and visual invention. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/city-of-god-2003) ## Sight and Sound — Paul Julian Smith Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). The critic praises the film's epic sweep across three decades of gang warfare and its clinical depiction of violence's causes and consequences rather than glorifying it. The review singles out the brilliant stylisation, non-professional cast, and how it testifies to the creativity of Brazil's underclass. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/far-from-glorying-violence-meirelles-shows-us-its-consequences-city-god-reviewed-2003) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 3 January 2003. The critic calls the film an electrifying, overwhelming thriller that is part coming-of-age story and part gang-warfare epic, with all the dials cranked up to 11. They single out its mythic opening chicken-chase sequence and the way it portrays the favela itself as the central character through its grim, inhuman environment. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/jan/03/artsfeatures2) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2003. The critic highlights the film's split-second direction, stylistic bravado paired with gritty realism, and non-professional cast performances that reveal tenderness and humor amid brutality. It convincingly portrays urban decay and has prompted real-world policy reassessment. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/city-of-god-1798198197) ## Variety — David Rooney Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2002. Festival review. The film delivers a bruising, visceral chronicle of drug trade and gang warfare in Rio’s slums that draws kids into crime as their only option. Its impressive craftsmanship, sharp storytelling, and non-pro cast make the epic fly despite some slickness that borders on glamorizing the setting. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2002/film/reviews/city-of-god-1200549576/) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 14 November 2002. The critic finds the film's MTV-style spectacle urgent but lacking moral ambiguities, with gratuitous voiceover references. Meirelles's storytelling and jittery lyricism are remarkable, evoking Tarantino and Scorsese influences while delivering excitement and crossover appeal. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/city-of-god/) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 25 February 2015. The review finds the film impressive overall despite being at times a little too hyperkinetic and punchy. It singles out the superb location photography, pacy editing, ingenious narrative approach, choreographed action, and terrific non-professional performances. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/city-of-god) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 13 January 2003. Meirelles’s furiously stylish film about favela gangs delivers a prodigious show of energy and visceral violence but ultimately leaves the viewer untouched. It excels in one standout scene showing a child’s terror but otherwise feels too rampagingly high-spirited to land lasting bruises. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/01/20/trouble-in-the-streets) ## Screen Daily 14 June 2002. Festival review. The critic calls it a real stunner with thrilling technical brilliance on a gritty, ambitious story spanning decades in a Rio favela. It singles out the narrative clarity, superb non-pro cast, emotional impact, and compassionate quality that gives it crossover potential. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/city-of-god-cidade-de-deus/409974.article) ## The New York Times — Stephen Holden Rating Critic's Pick. 17 January 2003. Fernando Meirelles’s film is a scorching history of violence in Rio’s slums that traces the neighborhood’s descent into a war zone ruled by armed children. It stands out for its profoundly unsettling images of boy soldiers and gang life. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/movies/film-review-boys-soldiering-in-an-army-of-crime.html) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray 5 December 2002. The critic describes the film as a living portrait of youth rage and criminality in an anarchic structure where law is the enemy and corruption the currency, with God and hope absent. It praises the director's commitment to cinematic honesty, the preparation with local non-actors, and the energetic, vital camerawork and soundtrack that convey the story's frenetic quality. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/city-of-god-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Paste — J. Robert Parks 23 January 2004. The Brazilian City of God is a bravura piece of filmmaking that takes the gangster movie and brings it powerfully into the 21st century. Its intricate narrative—told in both flashbacks and flash-forwards—is tautly compelling, while its cinematography and editing are exhilarating. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/city-of-god-dvd) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/city-of-god.md