"City Of God," from 2003, still stands up as one of the best films of the decade. Its story of two decades of gang history in a Rio de Janeiro favela (slum) was compelling enough, taking viewers into an underworld rarely glimpsed by outsiders. But as much as the story itself, the way in which it was realized on screen was incredibly fresh. A lot of this came from watching the styles of its co-directors Katia Lund and Fernando Meirelles collide — she came from documentaries, he from commercials. While seemingly opposed, their styles converged to create a new kind of hyper-realism.
"City of God" had a distinct, color-saturated look; it was filmed on location in actual favelas and featured kids from the streets in the roles. Yet, while striving for this realism, the film also sought to make it bigger than life, cutting scenes to the rhythm of the soundtrack, using freeze-frames, split-screens, bullet-eye views and collage. Every lesson worth taking from Scorsese's "Goodfellas" was learned, and then some.
Significantly, the film did not preach anything but the laws of karma. You live by the gun, then it's likely you'll die by the gun, and most of its characters did, both the ones we liked, and the ones we didn't. Only Rocket, the kid who parlayed his camera skills into a job in journalism, managed to find a life on the right side of the law.