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FAMILY

I wanted to see

A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

because of the reviews that I saw and also the profiles that I read about the writer-director Dito Montiel.

The film made a big stir at Sundance.

This is a big little picture. By focusing on the small group of family and friends we see a coming of age event that we can all identify with and care about.

Odd that we don't care as much for the specific characters as for the process of it all.

Robert Downey Jr. is wonderful as the adult Dito who has not seen any of the group for 15 years even though he has made a successful book about them all. They are the saints; the kids and grown ups he left behind who influenced him so much.

Downey's acting style is so clean and crisp. Intense. He has lived a lot of life and projects that into his role.

The film alternates between the adult world and the kid world. We see many of the living grown up kids.

The filming is noisy and choppy and moves back and forth in time. It captures New York life as most of it is. The Queens; the part you go through to get to the airports.

There are many surprises.

I liked it a lot and was touched by much of the film.

Dianne Weist as the mother and Chazz Palminteri as the Dad are the only actors to play their younger and older selves. Stunning.

Wiest opens the film and grabs you by the collar.

Among the kids, Shia LaBeouf as the young Dito is rivetting. He and Downey had to work together a lot to get the same moves and all.

Channing Tatum as Dito's cousin (?) and best friend is an abused boy who dishes all his pent up anger out at others. Stud.

It will be a 5 out of Netflix5 even though it has some slack parts and I couldn't get all the dialog—NYC accent and all the noise.

Labels: coming of age, films, indies