A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (DVD, 2009)

Product Description

Writer Dito Montiels highly cinematic memoir of his childhood in Queens New York makes the leap to the big screen with the author himself getting behind the camera to helm this powerful & at times gut-wrenching adaptation The film flits back & forth between the adult Montiels (Robert Downey Jr) emotional return to the neighbourhood after a 15-year gap & the childhood antics that led to his younger self (played by Shia Le Bouf) fleeing to Los Angeles in 1986 Downeys older brother Montiel is an introspective quietly successful author who comes home after he is informed of his fathers (Chazz Palminteri) life-threatening illness Le Boufs teenage Montiel is a young tearaway who runs into constant trouble with his gang of friends falls in love with local looker Laurie (Rosario Dawson) & dreams of an escape from the city with his Scottish friend Mike (Martin Compston) The balance of the film tilts in favour of the kids with most of the action taking place in 1986 These scenes acutely capture the punishing heat of the New York City summer with the teenage gang soaked in sweat & dirt as they trample through their crumbling Queens ghetto Channing Tatum gives a terrifying performance as Montiels violent young friend Antonio & Palminteri is equally intimidating filling the screen with palpable rage as he barks at the older & younger versions of his son The skittish narrative makes frequent lurches through the decades & also sees characters frequently breaking the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience recalling the work of writer-director team Guillermo Arriaga & Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu (21 GRAMS AMORES PERROS) Montiel couples this with the gritty stylistic verve of classic New York movies such as MEAN STREETS & SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER ultimately transforming SAINTS into the perfect distillation of two separate eras in an ever-evolving city