by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B+ Rated R 98 min
Dito Montiel wrote a critically acclaimed memoir of his youth in Astoria, N.Y. titled A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, which inspired Robert Downey Jr. to hatch plans for a movie based on Montier’s work. Downey wisely brought in an experienced producer Trudie Styler to make things happen with Montier writing the screenplay.
Anchored by a low budget and shot on location in Astoria, the project took shape with an all-star cast. Originally, Downey was interested in directing, but his commitment to other projects made that impossible. So, Montier took the helm as a first time director. The end result is a gritty coming of age story that vacillates between 1986 and fifteen years later, 2001, when Dito Montier, played by Robert Downey Jr., goes home to visit his terminally ill father. The crux of the story happens in flashback, as Dito recalls his youth.
The film won the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Performance at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, which may or may not mean the movie will do well in the mainstream milieu. But it’s a start to gaining a strong word of mouth buzz. Downey plays the older Dito and Shia La Boeuf portrays Dito in 1986.
The thrust of the premise involves Dito’s strange journey through the troubled waters of his adolescence, overseen by invisible saints or angels who kept him alive and out of trouble while his pals either ended up dead or in jail. One can easily understand why this story appealed to Downey, considering his own troubled past.
Montier’s main focus was overcoming the coming of age movie cliches of all that has gone before. For the most part, Montier succeeded in recreating the angst of his youth in a refreshingly realistic way, featuring dialogue that sounds true to real life. Clearly, friends are important to teenage boys like Dito, who, when he hangs with the wrong crowd, trouble by association can be a negative influence on his immediate future. Through Montier’s dialogue and pacing, the ensemble clicks with true adolescent resonance, jockeying for attention and expressing macho bravado.
Flashing back to 1986, Dito (Shia LaBeouf) and his buddies, Antonio (Channing Tatum) Giuseppe (Adam Scarimbolo) and Nerf (Peter Tambakis) roam the mean streets of Astoria being typical teenage smartalecks, harassing the girls with their false macho posturing and looking for trouble. The acting ensemble is tight and the dialogue crosses over in realistic patterns of jerky guys trying to get in the last word. All their chatter is inane gibberish but portrayed realistically.
Montier created a free flowing flashback method that allows the time jumps to be seamless, only noticeable by Downey suddenly playing Dito. This can get confusing, but it provides a time flow that recognizes the subtle differences in Queens circa 1986 then a quantum leap to 2001. Viewers see that not much as changed, except every female in the background in 2001 is talking on a cell phone. Funny, when Dito sees Nerf for the first time in fifteen years, he still has the same car he had in 1986 and is still living with his mother.
Viewers see how each boy’s family life affects his future. Antonio, played deftly by Channing Tatum has been continually abused by his father. He is a time bomb of pent-up rage. When a kid attacks his friend Dito, Antonio tracks him down and kills him with a baseball bat. Later, in 2001, Dito visits Antonio, played by Eric Roberts, in jail. Of course, Dito feels guilty about Antonio’s incarceration, but his conscience is clear because he never asked Antonio to kill his attacker. It’s seemed inevitable that Antonio would have killed someone with his psychotic personality.
The pivotal role of Dito’s father Monty is portrayed skillfully by Chazz Palminteri. His lifelong fight with epilepsy has left him disabled but he dotes on his son Dito. But when Dito moves to California to be a writer, and he doesn’t come back for fifteen years, Monty is deeply hurt. In 2001, he is terminally ill and bitter. He tells Dito to leave, but Dito’s old girlfriend Laurie (Rosario Dawson) tells him he must get his father to a hospital and make peace with him.
Montier’s story rings true. Time passes, and we change drastically as we mature. Going back to the old neighborhood after fifteen years is never what we imagined it would be, and shows us how much we have changed along with everyone we used to know. We all should have Dito’s saints protecting us.
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