I would not agree that City of God is shallow. I think that there is a popular thinking these days that a film is shallow if it isn't a complex study of the human condition or an alogory on contemporary American society (infact we sometimes label a film as being shallow if it isn't anti-American). City of God is a (reletively) simple "crime doesn't pay" drama, which also manages to say quite a lot about the notion that we all in one way or another have our time at the top. On those strengths, I think it is a great film and certainly isn't shallow. And I don't think that calling it exploitive is a valid criticism, because that's what the film is supposed to be.