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A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Writer-director Dito Montiel seems to have been given creative control in bringing his life to the screen with 2006's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, a coming of age drama that, despite an unfocused screenplay that meanders to an effective conclusion, manages to remain watchable due to Montiel's unforeseen talent as a director and a solid, hand-picked cast.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Montiel as an adult, a writer residing in LA who has just finished what apparently is his autobiography who gets a phone call from his mother (Dianne Wiest), asking him to come home because his father (Chazz Palminteri) is dying and refuses to go to the hospital.
The film then flashes back to Dito's teen years in Astoria, Queens, where Dito (now played by Shia LaBouef) is dealing with teenage growing pains, his three best friends, including Antonio (Channing Tatum) and an exchange student from Scotland named Mike (Martin Compston) and the tentative relationship he has a with a girl named Laurie (Melonie Diaz).
Montiel offers a standard tale of teen angst where we see Dito and his friends dealing with sex, gang violence, drugs, and other things we would associate with growing up in Astoria Queens in the 1980's, but what this story does finally boil down to is the extremely strained relationship between Dito and his father. Sadly, a lot of this strain seems stemmed from Dad seeming to care more about Antonio than his own son, not to mention his inability to listen to his son or tell him every once in awhile that he loves him, with poor Mom caught in the middle as reluctant but always present referee.
The movie does seem to come off as a ninety minute therapy session for the writer and director, who somehow possessed the juice to finance this (though the budget was definitely limited) journey into an unknown writer's childhood resentments and pain, which we really shouldn't care about, but he manages to make us care, thanks to some memorable set pieces and a cast that is completely invested in the project.
Shia LaBoeuf gives a star-making performance as young Dito, as does Channing Tatum as the explosive and unpredictable Antonio. Palminteri and Wiest are solid, as always, and mention should be made of Anthony DeSando as gay dog walker who young Dito works for and, of course, Robert Downey Jr., who makes the most of his limited screen time as the adult Dito. The film offers sporadic entertainment but I think Dito might have found one on one therapy a little less expensive.
Writer-director Dito Montiel seems to have been given creative control in bringing his life to the screen with 2006's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, a coming of age drama that, despite an unfocused screenplay that meanders to an effective conclusion, manages to remain watchable due to Montiel's unforeseen talent as a director and a solid, hand-picked cast.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Montiel as an adult, a writer residing in LA who has just finished what apparently is his autobiography who gets a phone call from his mother (Dianne Wiest), asking him to come home because his father (Chazz Palminteri) is dying and refuses to go to the hospital.
The film then flashes back to Dito's teen years in Astoria, Queens, where Dito (now played by Shia LaBouef) is dealing with teenage growing pains, his three best friends, including Antonio (Channing Tatum) and an exchange student from Scotland named Mike (Martin Compston) and the tentative relationship he has a with a girl named Laurie (Melonie Diaz).
Montiel offers a standard tale of teen angst where we see Dito and his friends dealing with sex, gang violence, drugs, and other things we would associate with growing up in Astoria Queens in the 1980's, but what this story does finally boil down to is the extremely strained relationship between Dito and his father. Sadly, a lot of this strain seems stemmed from Dad seeming to care more about Antonio than his own son, not to mention his inability to listen to his son or tell him every once in awhile that he loves him, with poor Mom caught in the middle as reluctant but always present referee.
The movie does seem to come off as a ninety minute therapy session for the writer and director, who somehow possessed the juice to finance this (though the budget was definitely limited) journey into an unknown writer's childhood resentments and pain, which we really shouldn't care about, but he manages to make us care, thanks to some memorable set pieces and a cast that is completely invested in the project.
Shia LaBoeuf gives a star-making performance as young Dito, as does Channing Tatum as the explosive and unpredictable Antonio. Palminteri and Wiest are solid, as always, and mention should be made of Anthony DeSando as gay dog walker who young Dito works for and, of course, Robert Downey Jr., who makes the most of his limited screen time as the adult Dito. The film offers sporadic entertainment but I think Dito might have found one on one therapy a little less expensive.