City of Men is a lower-depths shoot-'em-up about a pair of young Brazilian men who struggle to walk the straight and narrow even though drug-dealing gangs warp their environment. It's like a James Cagney crime melodrama -- say, Angels With Dirty Faces -- done with documentary flavor and refitted for the hivelike hillside slums, or favelas, of contemporary Rio de Janeiro.

Ace (Douglas Silva) and Wallace (Darlan Cunha) are childhood friends who've grown up without fathers. In the course of the film, Ace struggles to be a young father himself, Wallace locates his ex-convict dad, and both get caught in a gang war that sweeps across the neighborhood of Dead End Hill.

City of Men (Miramax) Starring Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha. Directed by Paulo Morelli. Rated R for violent scenes. Time 110 minutes. (In Portuguese, with English subtitles.)