On February 21, "City of God" held a small screening in four art theaters in New York and three in Los Angeles.

This screening unexpectedly attracted a lot of attention, firstly because of Sundance, secondly because of the current situation, thirdly because of Javier's blog, and fourthly because of the first wave of publicity in place. In the case that the three works released on a large scale this week are all lacking topicality, "City of God" has become the focus of attention as a dark horse.

In the third week of February, there are three new films screened in more than 2,000 theaters, "Single Men's Club", "The Life of David Gore" and "Private Law Action".

"The Bachelors Club," a comedy film starring Luke-Wilson and Will-Ferrell, is considered a favourite for the weekend's box office title.

"The Life of David Gore" is a thriller drama starring Kevin-Spacey and Kate-Winslet, but it struggles to do well at the box office due to its heavy theme focused on opposing the death penalty.

"Operation Private Law" is based on the 1992 Rodney King case, which caused a sensation in the United States, and screenwriter David Ayer, who dedicated "Training Day" last year, is the biggest attraction of this work.

Although the three new works have their own topic focus, the cold February and the embarrassing schedule make it difficult for them to make a difference. Among the previously released works, the reputation and box office of "Super Daredevil Man", which won the championship last week, both bottomed out, which was simply miserable; Disney's "Prince of the Forest 2" does not see any hope in the poor number of 38 points in the media comprehensive evaluation.

It can be said that the large-scale release of works is unsustainable, and after missing the grand screening of the year-end awards season, most of the works that choose to be screened in this schedule are truly independent works released by independent film companies, and the excitement of art theaters is more just the self-entertainment of movie lovers.

In this way, many topics of the "City of God" have easily become the talk of the town.

After seven theaters held the film, many media outlets that missed the Sundance Film Festival commented on the film for the first time, and as the most high-profile non-awards season film in the past month, no critic wanted to miss the feast.

A total of 33 media outlets commented on the "City of God", which is rare among the works screened by art theaters.

The New York Times gave it a perfect score of 100, "The film is fascinating, disturbing, terrifying, yet impossible to miss — showing a wonderful journey to hell." ”

At the end of a series of exclamation points, the "Film Review" also gave a perfect score of 100, "a remarkable achievement, struggling with desperate poetry and mad savagery, but making it impossible to look away." ”

The Wall Street Journal also gave it a perfect score of 100 points, "The well-crafted wave of street crime is suffocating, and the vivid and magnificent ukiyo-e is shocking to the heart!" ”

The Boston Globe gave not only a perfect score of 100, but also a perfect recommendation of 100 points, "an exhilarating slap in the face, full of tension and excitement, full of wisdom and profundity, full of style and cruelty - this is an incredible new director!" ”

The Washington Post did not hesitate to give it a hundred points, "It's a journey into hell that pretty much brings out all the depth and delicacy that a movie can pour." ”

Among the thirty-three film reviews, a perfect score of 100 occupies eleven places, as high as one-third; Twenty-six media outlets gave positive reviews, overwhelmingly kicking off the film's acclaim frenzy and pushing the media frenzy at the Sundance Film Festival to a new peak.

It seems that everyone is amazed by the emergence of the "City of God", which is one of the two major professional magazines in Hollywood, and in the latest issue of the magazine, they are directly exclaimed, "Jesus Christ, where did this guy come from!" ”

"Variety" magazine was also one of the eleven reviewers with a perfect score of 100, and in their comments, almost all the praise was given to the director, "witty, sharp, agile, sharp, sharp...... In his directorial debut, Lancelot Strello brings his talent to life, and in this bold and novel work with a city as the protagonist, he shows us the truth of a documentary, the vividness of a drama, the irony of a comedy, the stark footage combined with the unmistakable editing, and the whole story flows smoothly and bursts into eerie and captivating colors. Amazing talent, sophisticated control, and unbridled inspiration...... It's easy to think of Quentin Tarantino in 'Reservoir Dogs' and Paul-Tomas-Anderson in 'Boo's Night. ”

As "Variety" said, the whole of Hollywood is wondering that the thirty-year-old director actually didn't have any sound and movement before this; The whole of Hollywood was also exclaiming, almost silently, when the young director suddenly appeared and easily accomplished the sensational feat.

Quentin was thirty-one years old when he filmed "Reservoir Dogs"; Paul was twenty-seven years old when he filmed "Unruly Night"; When the Coen brothers filmed "Blood Labyrinth," Joel was thirty years old and Ethan was twenty-seven.

Although people always worship the geniuses who become famous at a young age, geniuses under the age of eighteen often cause a sensation, and Steven Spielberg completed his first short film at the age of thirteen, which is amazing; But in Hollywood, or to be more precise, in the position of director, in addition to talent, you also need to have the ability to control the overall situation, and you need to go through the vicissitudes of social experience, so most directors usher in their artistic peak between the ages of forty-five and sixty.

Thirty years old, for directors - for artistic creation, just a young man who is just starting out.

"Entertainment Weekly" evaluated the first week of "City of God" under the headline "Sundance Witnesses the Rise of Genius Again", and their rating also came to 100 points, and in the comments, "Hollywood, are you ready?" Lancelot-Strello is here! ”

Simple, but full of countless confidence and praise, it clearly shows the positive attitude of the whole of Hollywood towards the young director.

Of course, if there are positive reviews, there will inevitably be **, and this is true for any movie. However, among the 33 media reviews of "City of God", there is a rare situation of zero negative reviews, except for 26 positive reviews, the remaining seven reviews are all mediocre feedback information, which is a result worth celebrating for any film, because it means that the work has conquered the discerning critics, and it has almost swept the debut; And this is not only rare for a director's debut, but also rare, almost in one step to put Lancelot on the throne of "genius"!

The Los Angeles Times gave it a mixed rating of just 60 points, "It's a powerful and unexpected work, a mixed mix of authenticity and romance, and a fast-cut style that highlights the core idea of the work." It's a story that really happened, but that's all there is to it, the part that makes our time on the big screen more precious is the authenticity of the film, and that's it. ”

In their detailed comments, they believe that Lance's excavation of the core ideas of the theme is still not deep enough, but it is like scratching the itch in the boots until the point is reached, and it is just a work that does not hurt at the moment when the world pattern is so turbulent.

The San Francisco Chronicle also gave sixty points, but their rhetoric was decidedly more intense: "Strello's work is so keen to wield his anger and despair at society that the spirit of the whole work is as exuberant as the Brazilian samba, but the scars it causes don't last more than a night." ”

Clearly, their views coincide with those of the Los Angeles Times, but the two West Coast closest contenders surprisingly offer similar attitudes.

"Us Weekly" gave the lowest score of the media review, 50 points, "undoubtedly shocking, but also slightly numb!" Full of passion, but without a soul! ”

Cinematic Menace magazine also scored 50 points, "Lancelot Strello's way of telling the story is undoubtedly wise and skillful, showing all the elements needed for a thriller movie, silky chocolate, jazzy visuals, kaleidoscopic colors, fireworks celebration-like sound effects, but without making an indelible cautionary impact." ”

It can be seen that among the seven intermediate evaluations, the media praised the film's sharp style, but they all unanimously agreed that Lance did not go further into the discussion, and the point became the biggest regret of the film, which brought the afterglow of the core idea to an abrupt end.

On the whole, "City of God" has received zero negative reviews, and the authoritative media comprehensive evaluation collected and counted by the authoritative agency MetaScore has reached an eye-catching score of 82, which is an incredible achievement for a directorial debut.

And, no one should forget jì, this is a work in Portuguese.

Wave after wave of positive reviews has proven the correctness of Sundance's final choice, but what about the audience's choice? Is this work so popular and popular? Or is it high and low? The screening results of seven art theaters instantly attracted people's attention. It's a rare scene in a decade, and a non-English language work has gained so much attention in the North American market that it has never been seen before, even "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not able to achieve such treatment when it was first released.

The time, the place, the people, are quietly exerting their power.