"Elite Squad", as it shall be called in the US, is not only an accurate portrait of what goes on in the streets of Rio de Janeiro nowadays, but also a technically well executed movie, from head to toe. Director José Padilha has successfully ported his documentary skills to cinema, offering a sort of insight we rarely get from regular story-tellers, no matter how good they are. I guess when you're doing a documentary, the journalistic responsability is just as crucial as the ability to put together all the information collected during the reasearch phase. And José Padilha, whether that was his intention or not, could not escape his talent to film raw and scary reality while doing this piece. It sticks out as aggressively as possible, without becoming your everyday slasher. There's gore, there's extreme violence, but there's always content. There's always motive.
The cast is superb. Specially Wagner Moura, which comes as no surprise to me. I've seen a few movies this year and can't really think of many better performances than his in this movie. The Oscars are coming and I very much doubt he'd be considered for a nomination with all the hot shots putting they're movies out at the right time (you know the bunch, Russel Crowe, Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson, those incredible actors whose movies you only get to see in the November/December time frame) but if it were up to me, I'd seriously do. It'd be a great change for Hollywood, and an opportunity for it to get its head out of its ass.
Another great thing about this movie is that, for the first time, in the History of Brazilian entertainment, someone pointed the finger directly at the face of the real cuprit regarding the insolvable drug problem Rio de Janeiro has been facing for the last 20 years: the middle class. It is as clear as day that the drug dealer is supported by the dumbass SOB who wants to get high on the weekends, at Friday night, and smokes some marijuana, does a couple of lines of cocaine, or takes some ecstasy, and not the drug addict. And usually these assholes think they're not harming anyone by doing so. Well, in that sense, this movie can be educational. And for people like me, even a little vindicating.
A must see. 5 starts out of 5.
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