This is Rio, but it's a long way from the sun-baked glamour of "The Girl From Ipanema." Up on top of Dead End Hill, one of the many impoverished, overcrowded hillside favelas ringing the city, Midnight's gang is in control, armed like a platoon of Marines. Every day is a war just to stay alive.
Two best friends on the cusp of manhood, Ace (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha), try to make their way in this treacherous world. Ace is already a dad, but so immature he accidentally forgets his son, leaving him alone on the beach. Laranjinha desperately wants to find his biological father -- like most in the favela, he's fatherless -- and his girlfriend's brother is a gangster with questionable loyalty to the rulers of Dead End Hill.
The irony, of course, is that there are few actual men in "City of Men" -- no fathers, no guardians, no one taking responsibility. Dead End Hill is a parent-free, tropical Neverland, with assault rifles and guerrilla warfare instead of swordfights with pirates.
"City of Men" has the same setting, producers and general look as the brilliant "City of God," which picked up a handful of Oscar nominations in 2002. But "City of Men" is actually based on a Brazilian TV series -- and feels like it, with too many dangling, tangential plotlines, compressed stories and underdeveloped characters.
Although "City of Men" is fast-paced and well acted by its young cast, much of the dialogue is weighed down by clumsy exposition.
• At Squirrel Hill Theater
Additional Information:
'City of Men'
Rated R for violence, sexuality and language 
