★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS
With its chapter headings (‘The Story of the Tender Trio’, ‘Benny’s Farewell’), decades-spanning narrative and colourfully named characters (Knockout Ned, Steak and Fries), there’s something almost Dickensian about Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s saga of lives lived, lost and squandered in Rio’s crime-ridden favelas. It even has a David Copperfield in observant hero Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), a budding photographer whose personal history gets entwined with that of hoodlum Li’l Zé (Leandro Firmino da Hora). Two decades on, this Brazilian GoodFellas still packs an adrenalised punch.