emmanuelmstudent As someone who lives in the area of the movie was filmed I can properly say if this movie is representing Astoria as it should be. I think the way this movie was represented from the book I think was done beautifully. The way It switches to past to present when something important happens to one of the characters we see them how that leads them to the future in the neighborhood.One thing I didn't like about the film was one death that they did. The death of Mike O'Shea. They killed him right after the reaper had died and his friend with the gun kills him. Why was he looking for them specifically, why would he be looking for them and not Antonio. The relationship with Dito and his dad is a little dysfunctional. His dad felt bad for Antonio because of his situation with his dad. He wanted to help someone without a dad by being their father figure.

antoniotierno Given all the filmed memory pieces about screaming, violent Italian- American families in New York boroughs, I'm not usually thrilled by even good examples. However director Dito Montiel adapts his autobiographical book, most of it set in the mean streets of Astoria in the early 80s. Robert Downey Jr. plays Montiel, who goes home to visit his estranged father (Chazz Palminteri), occasioning flashbacks to his younger self (Shia LaBeouf), his pals, and a violent feud involving graffiti and a baseball bat. With Rosario Dawson, Dianne Wiest, Channing Tatum, and Eric Roberts. Lovable the scenes with young people in the middle of a hot New York summer, talking to one another like panthers circling. Overall it's worth it.

Armand Kind of movie to determine a trip in your universe. Self definition. Ballas of memories. Faces of friends and family members, images of birth place and events of lost ages. An experience but in a strange form. Behind that, a good, real good film. Great cast and usual Robert Downwy jr. Bricks from America as pieces of puzzle. Speech about friendship and freedom, values and love, sense of gestures and returns, roots and teenage circle. And more. The words without letters, the emotions like smoke or snow, the images of people and streets, the perfume of past who is not base for future, all ordinaries facts , without importance but essentials for time of answers when questions are just ash flowers.The saints, saints of this film are shadows of every meeting. Silouettes, crumbs, just men and women , strange, boring, without any relevance. But sick, need of reconciliation, a girl who is mother today, 20 years, a friend in prison breaks appearances. And finish becomes beginning. So recognize your saints.

thesar-2 I happened to catch A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints on IFC on-demand one day and since it stars Robert Downey Jr, one of my favorites and Shia LaBeouf who can act, when he's far-far away from big-budgeted movies, I gave it a chance. Though, I can't say I was really disappointed, I can say I wasn't that impressed.I guess it's just not my type of movie. It's a flashback movie of a novelist who speaks not-so-fondly over his family living in Queens, NY in the mid-1980s who screams every line, incessantly talks over each other and the punk kids he either grew up with or wooed. Realistic, I suppose, but I'm certainly glad I never had to ever endure one minute of this guy's life.Older Dito (Downey Jr.) starts off in the present reciting his life story and then we get the typical 80% past and 20% present movie. In the past, Young Dito (LaBeouf) hangs out with the wrong crowd with aspirations of getting out and promising a girl he'll take her with him. He's also dealing with his loud father who, per his own words, is very abusive, though through sight, I honestly don't think he was that back. I've seen worse.The kids, or mini-gang, just wander around Queens always getting into a beef with a real gang. Yelling, swearing, baseball bats, murder and accidental suicide ensures. And though I've already admitted I haven't walked in these kid's shoes – or lived in NYC, or any large inner-city, for that matter, I doubted their reactions. Such as after the accidental suicide, and at the funeral, the brother of the deceased goes on to talk about the previous plot point as if nothing ever happened. Those parts I found unrealistic.Other than that, I'm sure these situations and families truly lived like this, and just like a lot of movies, a la Boyz n the Hood, I'm sure there's always at least one member wants to break out of the mold and venture to a cleaner life. But, we've been there, done that, with a lot more interesting characters. And with characters we actually care about. There wasn't a single likable or charismatic person in this movie, including Dito, that I rooted for.So if loud and overlapping conversations, yelling, swearing, ruthless and "abusing" low-life families and kids stuck in the 1980s is your bag, you might like this "real portrayal." Other than that, you're best just to go back to (or in this movie's case, forward to) the much better 1991's Boyz n the Hood.