City of God | 100 Movies Bucket List

At this point in the bucket list we start getting to the films that are a bit harder to find.

I had never heard of this film before seeing it on the list, and I didn't look it up before watching it (beyond searching for a platform to watch it on), so I had no idea what it was about.

Sometimes when I'm watching the bucket list movies I write a couple of little notes to remind myself how I felt about it, as I don't give them full reviews. For this one, the only thing I wrote was 'harrowing' and I think that describes it well.

The film doesn't shy away from anything troubling or uncomfortable, and it doesn't try to sugar-coat what the characters are going through, or what their lives were like. Apparently it's loosely based on true events and that feels really evident.

Because of that, these characters feel extremely authentic. Whether you're familiar with their lives or not, you empathise and sympathise with them because it feels like you're watching a documentary about real people.

And this also makes the uncomfortable things easier to watch. You don't feel like this is just a piece of entertainment. It feels important.

So while it probably wasn't one of my favourites that I've seen for the bucket list, it's definitely one of the more important, authentic ones on the list.