Interesteg What makes it different from others?

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

mcawesomemd film grabs your attention and jerks at your emotional draw strings. Its unapologetic in its true life portrayal of NY in the 80s. This on screen adaptation of the autobiography tells the story of teens stuck in a gridlock of violence. Loved it and would recommend it. Robert Downey Jr does an amazing job. Channing Tatum surprisingly steps out of his comfort zone to play an angry hot headed and misguided friend of the Dito Shia labouf. The film was entertaining and I would not hesitate to recommend it to all. I watched the film before reading the book, now I'm excited to read the book. You really feel like you can connect with some of the characters.

Steve Pulaski Dito Montiel's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints takes the style and approach similar to Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which both overshadow this film for their grandscale look on issues and the exploration into certain relationships and how they grow and decimate over time. All three films possess common attributes; all three take place in a part of New York, they are directed by first-timers, they are stories that the men hold close to their hearts, all utilize the storytelling method of narration or breaking the fourth wall in some way, and they focus on a large group of characters all with something to say. Whether it's worth hearing or not is up to you.A Bronx Tale effected me in a way that totally came out of left field. By delivering its brutal honesty with cold, authentic realism was audacious and showcasing three exquisite talents (one of them, Chazz Palminteri, present here), it delivered a coming of age drama, deeper and more reliant on values than any one I've previously seen. Do the Right Thing was a crisp, lively drama relying on racial tensions and impending chaos that would ensue from enduring a brutally hot day in Brooklyn. Spike Lee brilliantly concocted tension through character development and human conversation, and almost implying, throughout the course of the entire film, that no character did "the right thing." But whatever your definition of the right thing was, you could disagree with me.Montiel is more interested with telling his story more than tacking on a fancy moral or showing any deep, subversive element in particular, which is perfectly fine with me. His close-to-home story is buoyant on its own, relying on strong performances from charismatic leads and is elevated by bright, humid, and mercilessly seamy cinematography. Montiel himself is our protagonist, played in his later years by Robert Downey Jr., a successful writer, yet absent family-man, Dito's mother calls him one day, twenty years after leaving behind his home in Queens, to return home to convince his father (Chazz Palminteri) to go to the hospital after falling gravely ill. Upon returning home, he sees Queens isn't much different, still crime-infested and relatively unprotected from the destructive youth and the passive adults, but notices that his longtime friends' ambitions of being lawless and as juvenile as possible have surged into adulthood.This story is spliced with flashbacks from 1986, the year when Dito (Shia LeBeouf) abandoned everything he erected in Queens, when Dito was only concerned about hanging with his friends Antonio (Channing Tatum), Laurie (Melonie Diaz), and Mike (Martin Compston), causing trouble and wreaking havoc. The film casually follows the youth's events and run-ins with relationships, sexual encounters, conversations, and troubled instances, and often showing their home-lifes as the least of their concerns.Palminteri gives a wonderful performance here, confidently lax, yet remarkably genuine and subdued, often providing his son Dito with father-like guidance that often gets ignored when the going gets tough. When Dito is seen in present time, he is unforgiven by his father who views his move to leave home not noble and commendable, like some would, but rather shameful and deviant. He views his son's return home as no more than a cop out move, somewhat more shameful than him leaving. His offer to make amends feels forced and trite and he ain't buying it.A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints consistently maintains a gritty atmosphere and always feels alive and raw, even when it's at its calmest times. The performances, mainly from LeBeouf, Tatum, Downey Jr., Palminteri, and Rosario Dawson, who could've benefited from more screen time, use the story's difficult themes of family relations and devotions to their favor, and never does much of this lack genuine feeling, thanks to Mantiel manning the camera and working the pen on this project. To call this film "solid" would be sort of an understatement, yet to call this "groundbreaking" or even "wonderful" would be a bit much. I'll go with "meaningful:" seems to meet them halfway.Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Rosario Dawson, Melonie Diaz, Chazz Palminteri, Martin Compston, Eric Roberts, Channing Tatum, Dianne Wiest. Directed by: Dito Montiel.

thesar-2 I happened to catch A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints on IFC on-demand one day and since it stars Robert Downey Jr, one of my favorites and Shia LaBeouf who can act, when he's far-far away from big-budgeted movies, I gave it a chance. Though, I can't say I was really disappointed, I can say I wasn't that impressed.I guess it's just not my type of movie. It's a flashback movie of a novelist who speaks not-so-fondly over his family living in Queens, NY in the mid-1980s who screams every line, incessantly talks over each other and the punk kids he either grew up with or wooed. Realistic, I suppose, but I'm certainly glad I never had to ever endure one minute of this guy's life.Older Dito (Downey Jr.) starts off in the present reciting his life story and then we get the typical 80% past and 20% present movie. In the past, Young Dito (LaBeouf) hangs out with the wrong crowd with aspirations of getting out and promising a girl he'll take her with him. He's also dealing with his loud father who, per his own words, is very abusive, though through sight, I honestly don't think he was that back. I've seen worse.The kids, or mini-gang, just wander around Queens always getting into a beef with a real gang. Yelling, swearing, baseball bats, murder and accidental suicide ensures. And though I've already admitted I haven't walked in these kid's shoes – or lived in NYC, or any large inner-city, for that matter, I doubted their reactions. Such as after the accidental suicide, and at the funeral, the brother of the deceased goes on to talk about the previous plot point as if nothing ever happened. Those parts I found unrealistic.Other than that, I'm sure these situations and families truly lived like this, and just like a lot of movies, a la Boyz n the Hood, I'm sure there's always at least one member wants to break out of the mold and venture to a cleaner life. But, we've been there, done that, with a lot more interesting characters. And with characters we actually care about. There wasn't a single likable or charismatic person in this movie, including Dito, that I rooted for.So if loud and overlapping conversations, yelling, swearing, ruthless and "abusing" low-life families and kids stuck in the 1980s is your bag, you might like this "real portrayal." Other than that, you're best just to go back to (or in this movie's case, forward to) the much better 1991's Boyz n the Hood.

Melissa Mendelson The story of our lives begins in youth, and no matter how far we walk into time, those moments of our life walk with us. And hard choices will be made and never taken back, and we will struggle ahead, never knowing what lies down the road. And we will always look back to remember the ones that touched our lives, filled our soul with inspiration, and gave us the strength to continue on.And the door to the past swings open, and we are led into the life of Dito Montiel. And through his pen do we witness a dramatic story of one living on the hard streets of Astoria, Queens, and as the camera rolls, we follow his journey from past to future. And with heart and soul do the actors bring characters to life, memories of those carried forever, and the depth of one revealing the fabric of his being, his definition echoes deep through the talented Robert Downey Jr . and Shia Labeouf. And inspiration meets us in the end, and love, friendship touches our heart. And the bitter sweetness of life are the tears that slide down our skin and fall like shooting stars across the night, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.