Review of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) by Ian J — 23 Mar 2010

Based on the popular 2003 autobiographical memoir, "A guide to recognizing your saints" is director Dito Monteil's debut film, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Winner of "Best Ensemble" at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and quite deserving of it, the cast shines from the opening scene. The film portrays the life of Dito Monteil, played by Shai Lebouf, and later as Robert Downey Jr, as a man who attempts to bury his past growing up in the tough neighborhood of Astoria, Queens and his attempt at reconciling with those that he left. On a larger scale, the movie represents the way we all run away from our problems just to find ourselves making our way back to them.

A large portion of the film focuses on Monteil's youth growing up in 1989 Queens, NY and cuts back and forth between his life as a successful writer in present day Los Angeles. Throughout the film, we are introduced to the characters of Dito's childhood and these "saints" do an amazing job as a supporting cast. There's Antonio (Channing Tatum) Dito's temperamental friend who is embraced by Dito's father Monty (Chizz Palminteri). There's also Laurie (Rosario Dawson) who plays Dito's girlfriend, these two are clearly in love and it shows in there one on one scenes.

The highlights of the film are the father and son moments between Dito and Monty (Chazz Palminteri gives the performance of his career here.) These scenes are incredibly raw and extremely well done by Monteil.

In short, this is an extremely well done film, I would highly recommend anyone who is a fan of good film to see this immediately.