When Roger Ebert received a call from Lance, he seemed very surprised, and he did not hide his surprise, "I don't think we are friends, and I don't think you should call me at this time."

Lance had already made such preparations when he wanted to get Roger's phone number from Mark Gordon, so he was not panicked at all. "Please don't get me wrong. I'm calling this just to be friends with Mr. Ebert. It's always a person who needs to take a step first when establishing friendships between strangers and strangers, right?"

Roger could not refute, but chuckled, "But why is this time?" It is awards season, the most sensitive time point, and things are obviously not that simple.

"Why can't it be this time?" Lance's rhetoric question was open and honest, as if there was no additional interest involved, which made Roger chuckled. However, Lance's statement obviously could not convince Roger, because everyone knew the real inside story in his heart, and the denial in his mouth could not count. "I am a movie enthusiast and a film practitioner. My every move is closely related to the movie. Of course, many of the side effects I cannot deny, and I do not intend to deny, but I must insist that all my actions are based on the movie. For example, this phone call."

"Lancelot, ticking." Roger did not give Lance face and started counting down directly. Obviously, Lance's words did not attract his interest.

Lance was not in a hurry, but just continued at his own pace, "I was shooting a commercial movie recently, but obviously, as a new director, I still have many shortcomings, so I need some friends' opinions."

Roger raised his eyebrows, he had to admit that Lance's straightforward words made him a little interested. "So, are you calling a film critic or another friend?" This is a big difference.

"I'm calling a friend who is a film critic." Lance took a loophole in language, which made Roger curl his lips, but Lance still didn't finish his words. "Similarly, I also called a friend who is a director, a friend who is a photographer, a friend who is a professional athlete, a friend who is a hedge fund manager, a friend who is a lawyer, a friend who is an agent, a friend who is a reporter..." Lance's words slowly settled down the disdain in the corner of Roger's mouth, "As I said, if you want to mention the collateral influence, no industry in this society can get rid of it; if you want to mention the sensitive period, then I'm not sure when the right time is, maybe February 14 is the right choice."

Lance was quibbling, but he was very smart. With Lance's wisdom and humor, Roger couldn't help but chuckled, and the smile in his eyes revealed his true emotions.

As Lance said, everyone should be self-protective during the awards ceremony season. But no one can do it. The key point is never to open the rules and frameworks, but to the mentality of looking at the work. "So, my friend, call me today. Is there no follow-up?"

Although Lance has been calm and composed, he finally gave up a sip at this moment, "Haha. Next Friday, my work will hold a small movie party at the landmark theater in Burbank. Maybe you can be there and give me some advice to let me know my strengths and weaknesses. I may get some inspiration to make some improvements to this work that is currently busy."

Roger couldn't help but smile.

Roger was present on time at the small movie-watching party of "City of God", and another friend of Lance, Lawrence, was accompanied by.

This is a very professional movie-watching party. Apart from Roger and Lawrence, there are two reporters, three producers, several actors, and even two photographers. The rest are all veteran professional film lovers. Moreover, no members of the crew of "City of God" appear - even Paramount Pictures did not send any direct related personnel to attend. Even the most picky academy judges cannot say anything inappropriate.

In the hot and bustling environment of the award ceremony season, small movie-watching parties in "City of God" were not available at all. Even gossip magazines like "U.S. Weekly" and "Entertainment Weekly" were too lazy to look at them. They seemed to be just a movie-watching party that was just an ordinary and simple movie-watching party.

But after this professional movie-watching party, Roger Ebert wrote a professional review on the Chicago Sun.

Previously, when "City of God" was released at the Sundance Film Festival, Roger had already given unimaginable praise to the movie with four-star reviews and four-star recommendations, but that time Roger only wrote a brief review. This time, Roger wrote a long review and once again gave a four-star full score!

"At the Sundance Film Festival early in the year, an unknown director emerged with a Brazilian film. With the tumultuous energy of anger, the City of God tells the story of a slum gang in Rio de Janeiro. It is a film full of enthusiasm, full of restlessness, full of tension and fear that easily puts us into the hot and uneasy land of South America, and declares that a new director with outstanding talent and passion appears:

Lancelot-Straello.

Remember this name! Someone compared the "City of God" with the "Good Guy" of Scorsese, which is definitely worthy. At the beginning of the story, the narrator said that he had wanted to be a gangster since he could remember; but the narrator of "City of God" seemed to have no other choice at all.

The story takes place in a slum specially established by Rio de Janeiro that isolated the poor from the city center. This area gradually developed into a zone full of vitality, color, music and excitement. At the same time, it gradually developed into a zone with lack of laws and morality. Violence covered the sky above the head, as if it isolated this area, forming an endless but narrow and restrained world that can never escape.

In the passage at the beginning of the movie that can reflect the director's superb skills, a group of people have a dinner together, and a live chicken escapes, bringing the camera to the narrator of the story, A Pao, and then A Pao accidentally finds that he is standing between two groups of gunmen: one is a gang and the other is a policeman.

The camera rotates around him, and the background changes. The teenager Apao shrank into a little boy, playing football in the slum clearing. He said that if you want to understand his story, you must go back to the beginning. His brother and his friends formed the three young heroes, living a new life that some people call sins and some people call survival.

In this set of shots, the director demonstrates superb skills—rotating shots, flashbacks, colors shift from the strong contrast of light and darkness of the slums to the dirty and bright yellow of the football field—a reminder that this is a rare film of visual vitality and creativity.

Strello and photographer Hayden Hunter use fast cutting and flexible hand-held photography to advance the plot to maintain speed and provide the details. Sometimes, this method will make the movie look like a mess, but the "City of God" is like we are in the scene, with dangers or opportunities everywhere we see.

Following A Pao's sight, we gradually see the whole picture of this city of God. Here, all social structures, including family, are destroyed by poverty. The social structure and social status here depend on the gang. People who are mixed with gangs have extremely high mortality rates, so the leader is also astonishingly young and is still growing further. Surviving is the only value of life. In a surprising passage, the winning leader is killed in the way he is least likely to think of, and is killed by the person he is least likely to think of. We see that in essence, he did not die under a certain person, but from that kind of criminal culture.

But the reason why the "City of God" is excellent is that the movie is not just coldness and violence. Apao also captures some Dickens-like flavors in the City of God. The chaotic life also allows us to see some characters with nicknames, personalities, and personal signatures. Characters like Benny, Steak, and Otto, characters like Shuai Ned, Little Overlord, and Red Hair always bring completely different feelings, outlining the story of this Borderless Land with the sadness and banter of fate.

The movie is adapted from Paul Lins' novel, and some of the stories are from reality. We can see that A Pao obtained a camera, took photos like a baby, and took photos as a child, and found a job to deliver newspapers, asking a photographer to wash out the photos he took. As a result, he was surprised to see the leader of the gang he took appeared on the front page of the newspaper.

‘I was sentenced to death’, he thought. But the situation was just the opposite. The gangs actually liked the opportunity to show up in public and took the girl to take photos. The real pulse was beating in these plots, which was also reflected in the comments and praises of the newly elected Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula-da Silva (Luiz-inacio-Lla-da-private Lva) for the "City of God". He believed this was a very necessary call for reform!

On the level of true violence, the City of God is not as strong as Scorsese's "New York Gangster". But there is a certain comparability in the two films, in which there are two cities: one is a city that lives and works in peace and is protected by law; the other belongs to those abandoned, those who come together because of despair. People living in these places have few chances of being seen or heard.

The City of God is neither exploited nor despised, does not deliberately create plots for false effects, and does not contain stupid love lines. It is just a pair of passionate, wise eyes that look at everything they know. In this regard, it is better than the 'New York Gangster'."
Chapter completed!