There's nothing pretty about Jose Padilha's drama about warring cops and drug dealers. What the Golden Bear winner has is a ferocious energy that's in tune with its setting and subject.
Star rating: ***
Dir: Jose Padilha
With: Wagner Moura, Andre Ramiro
THERE'S nothing pretty about Jose Padilha's drama about warring cops and drug dealers. What the Golden Bear winner has is a ferocious energy that's in tune with its setting and subject.
It's 1997, and Rio is preparing for a Papal visit. The slums must be cleared of criminals, and the Elite Squad are the ones wielding the guns and batons. The story is so messy initially it's hard to tell up from down, cop from dealer, which is partly Padilha's point.
Here are the police as torturers and rule breakers, doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Pity Padilha is so busy stylising the shocking police violence he doesn't make clearer his condemnation of such tactics.
