Kids in den Straßen New Yorks

What I enjoyed most about the movie was the interesting ways in which the director edited the film. It seemed that every 10 minutes or so, the viewer was treated to yet another new way to tell a story. The result was an often choppy pace, but it was done in a way that was very engaging and was easy to follow.

The acting was superb by all, and you felt genuine bonds between the unique characters. My only complaint here was that Robert Downey Jr. didn't seem to fit his part, though he acted well. It was a relatively minor role so didn't have an overall impact on the film.

I have never been to New York, but the movie was very insightful as to what it was like growing up there, both on the streets and at home.

An enjoyable movie that is fun to watch.

I was lucky enough to catch the last showing of "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" at my local theater, and man, was I surprised. I haven't seen a film with such an accurate and heart wrenching portraits of troubled youths since "Kids".

"A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" gives us a glimpse into the life of Dito Montiel (Shia Labouf, with Robert Downey Jr. as the older version) growing up on the streets of Astoria, Queens in 1986. When he leaves for California, he leaves behind his best friend and resident tough guy Antonio (Channing Tatum, with Eric Roberts playing the older version), his caring mother (Diane Wiest) and tough love father (Chazz Palminteri), his girlfriend Laurie (Melonie Diaz, with Rosario Dawson as the older version), and pretty much everyone else he knew.

First time director Dito Montiel does a stellar job of establishing characters and their relationships. He also does a great job directing scenes that seem so real (thnks to some superb acting by the cast), it almost seems like a documentary. A huge round of applause goes to the cast for their performances.

The ending wasn't really cohesive with the script. I didn't leave knowing what happened with Dito and his family and friends. Other than that, there's not a single bad moment.

"A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" is raw, gritty, and stunning. There's not a single disappointing scene in the movie.

9.5/10

I liked the direction and acting better than the screenplay, although Dito Montiel has written a very moving story. His use of different styles and techniques- most of which came from him just experimenting or not really knowing what "to do"- are at first somewhat jarring, but grow to fit the fractured lives of his characters perfectly. This movie is not for everybody, but should be seen by anyone who is despairing of the state of American Independent movies. And the cast- truly brilliant. Pros like Dianne Weist (she can truly do no wrong, and her character would be so weak in a lesser actor's hands) and Chazz Palminteri are mixed with relative newcomers and complete unknowns that Montiel picked up in casting sessions out in Queens. For me, the whole movie was worth seeing Channing Tatum, however. He is heartbreaking and scary and full of explosive energy. The screen can barely contain him. One of the best movies I've seen in quite awhile.

Despite how emotionally charged and rawly personal the film feels, I could not help but think cynically almost the entire time. Becoming annoyed with myself, I began to wonder why, and I realized that it was because it is only one person's movie and nobody else's: the writer/ director Dito Montiel's. It is a self-congratulating piece of self-indulgent work from a self- obsessed filmmaker. The whole movie basks in Montiel's comfort with projecting his story like another angry, organic indie film about growing up in a quasi-criminal, wild, crowded environment in New York City, constant music, a subjective camera, as if it were this generation's Mean Streets. But it is a painfully self-conscious movie. It goes for accent on structure of story and style rather than the story itself, as we are made to pity and root for people not through the story's workings but the emotional door-banging of the film itself.

Montiel's precious reminisce of a film is one triumphant paradox. I felt aggravated by its preoccupation with itself, but those feelings were undercurrents as I was truly enthralled with the film. I did care about certain characters and I felt like jumping up and saying, "Bravo," for the performances given by Robert Downey, Jr. and Rosario Dawson, despite his spare screen time, as well as Shia LeBeouf, Chazz Palminteri, and Dianne Wiest. Montiel succeeds in ending the film in a way where we're shaking the residual effect for the rest of the day, and I'm not doubting that he has talent. If he'd realize that his compulsion with drawing attention to what kind of movie it is and how it is made is actually an obstruction in the way of his story, perhaps the way he wants his film to appear will happen more naturally.

In this autobiographical coming-of-age piece, director Dito Montiel confronts his gritty past in Astoria, Queens. He tells the doomed story of a teenage boy who spends his days in the seedy hot crime-infested backstreets of 1980's New York City to the day when he leaves for California and does not return until twenty years later, when his father (Chazz Palminteri) is sick. The retelling is impressive and absorbing.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is bursting with the flair of a debut director, who is eager to employ a wide variety of techniques – steadicams, punctured narrative, flashbacks, script interjections, dreamlike non-chronological editing and an uneven pace. The good news is that it channels Spike Lee's criminal Queens street style with fast-paced local jargon that recycles 'fuck' in every sentence and snaps and crackles like kindling in a fireplace between its many thug-like characters. Owing to its coming-of-age format, the story often stays wildly unfocused and you get the feeling many scenes do not serve a purpose other than to get us a feel for the venality with which things were run.

Nevertheless, the characters are all absorbing, especially the young versions of Robert Downey Jr, Eric Roberts and Rosario Dawson. One of these is Antonio – a childhood friend of Dito's and local bully – who does wonderful improvisation-like raw lines. The vast contingent of American preeteen fangirls who were lusting after Channing Tatum after his cheesy teen movies had put me off this actor at first, but it cannot be denied that he gives one of the most intense performances in the film as Antonio – he is hard-edged, testosterone-fuelled and doomed. Robert Downey Jr. is remarkably toned down as the grown-up Dito, delivering sparse lines and abandoning his usual colourful style of acting.

Together the four Queens teens harass girls, beat up rival gangs, shoplift and give attitude to on-lookers and this is undoubtedly when it feels the most like Spike Lee Lite. Saints patiently crafts tension at several points in the story, and it prefers climaxes to continuity as bad events snowball into criminal messes, deaths and the final abandonment by Dito. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is an interesting and compelling story, recreated with deft strokes by local Dito Montiel.

Sting and Trudi Styler loved the script so much they went to great lengths to support the production, and Chazz Palminteri delayed the shooting of another film of his with money out of his own pocket just to be able to play the bruised father in the film. These should serve as marks of its success and most of all the commitment with which its cast approached the film.

7.5 out of 10