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A guide to recognizing your saints - Robert Downey Jr, Rosario Dawson, Shia LaBeouf, Dito Montiel

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.

A successful writer living in Los Angeles, Dito (Robert Downey Jr) is summoned home to Astoria after a 15-year absence by his mother (Dianne Wiest) when his father (Chazz Palminteri) becomes seriously ill. His father never forgave Dito for leaving home and thus the two have a very strained relationship. Memories of his youth come flooding back as Dito (played as a teenager by Shia LaBeouf) revisits the old neighbourhood, encountering the few childhood friends (the "saints" of the film and memoir's title) who aren't in prison or dead. As Dito finds himself whisked back into the childhood events that shaped him, we meet an unforgettable cast of characters living in the thick of a sweltering 1986 Queens summer.

These "saints" include Laurie (Melonie Diaz), Dito's childhood sweetheart; Mike O'Shea (Martin Compston), a transplanted Scot with an Irish name who dreams of becoming a punk rock musician; Giuseppe (Adam Scarimbolo), a reckless, destructive and possibly insane member of Dito's street posse; and the unforgettable Antonio (Channing Tatum), Dito's cocky and volatile best friend grappling with an abusive father. As Dito comes to terms with the ghosts of his past, he must fight to rebuild a relationship with his emotionally distant father.

An honest, unflinching account of a bitter-sweet return to a neighbourhood where relationships can never be what they once were, A guide to recognizing your saints is about coming to terms with misplaced love, reconciling with family, and embracing the ghosts of your past. It's a mesmerizing début from a truly gifted new director.

Theatrical propaganda posters

A guide to recognizing your saints theatrical one sheet image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film coming-of-age crime drama biography Queens New York childhood youth gang prison violence graffiti

Persons of interest

Robert Downey Jr .... Dito
Rosario Dawson .... Laurie
Shia LaBeouf .... Young Dito
Chazz Palminteri .... Monty
Dianne Wiest .... Flori
Channing Tatum .... Antonio
Eric Roberts .... Older Antonio
Kyle Devon Benitez .... Joey
Scott Michael Campbell .... Nerf
Federico Castelluccio .... Antonio's Father
Martin Compston .... Mike O'Shea
Anthony DeSando .... Frank
Melonie Diaz .... Young Laurie
Julia Garro .... Diane Honeyman
Eleonore Hendricks .... Jenny
Olga Merediz .... Aunt Mary
Michael Rivera .... Reaper
Adam Scarimbolo .... Giuseppe
Peter Anthony Tambakis .... Young Nerf
E Austin Valentine .... Very young Dito
Dito Montiel .... Screenwriter
Dito Montiel .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

A guide to recognizing your saints official movie site
A guide to recognizing your saints film production notes
A guide to recognizing your saints QuickTime movie trailers

Awards and film festivals:

National Board of Review, USA 2006: Won: Top Independent Films
Sundance Film Festival 2006: Won: Director's Award Dramatic (Dito Montiel), Special Jury Prize Dramatic (Robert Downey Jr, Shia LaBeouf, Rosario Dawson, Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest, Channing Tatum); Nominated: Grand Jury Prize Dramatic (Dito Montiel)
Venice Film Festival 2006: Won: Critics' Week Award (Dito Montiel), Isvema Award (Dito Montiel)

See also Half Nelson, Raising Victor Vargas
Studios and distributors:

Jump Street Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

There's something about A guide to recognizing your saints that drags. Even though there's an escalating series of violent events that you know will end badly, it never picks up enough speed to get off the ground. That's the trouble with real life: most of it is just passing time waiting for something interesting to happen - which is why reality TV needs a narrator.

Also, thank the goddess that you weren't born in a shit-hole like Queens and that everyone you know doesn't talk without bothering to hear what you said. If you want to see a family who can't communicate, the Montiels are it.

I didn't much like A guide to recognizing your saints but I can see why it won a bunch of high-powered awards as the acting is really good (especially from Dianne Wiest and the teenage cast). I wasn't impressed with some of Dito Montiel's cinematographic choices as this is a dramatic film, not an artistic one. The zooms and tilts and cuts are more appropriate to a Memento than A guide to recognizing your saints.

The coming-of-age crime drama movie A guide to recognizing your saints is directed by Dito Montiel and stars Robert Downey Jr, Rosario Dawson, Shia LaBeouf.