A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Writer-director Dito Montiel's autobiographical A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a joint coming-of-age and coming-back-home story, juxtaposing bits from the life of a teenaged Dito (played by Shia LaBeouf) on the verge of leaving his highly-charged Queens neighborhood in 1986 with present-day scenes in which he (now played by Robert Downey, Jr.) returns home to visit his ill, long estranged, father (Chazz Palminteri). While the film is full of wildly shifting emotional displays that might make sense to Montiel, to an outsider they seem muddled and often incomprehensible, while the cross-cutting between recollected and contemporary sequences is equally confusing. The film boasts some fine acting, not only by Downey but also by Channing Tatum as the young Dito's violence-prone best friend and Martin Compston as the new classmate he intends to run off with to California. But the acting can't compensate for scenes that not only seem fragmented but also emotionally opaque. Like its title, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints has a certain pretentious air about it, but fulfills its ambitions only sporadically—interesting in parts, but too disjointed to succeed as a whole. Optional. (F. Swietek) [DVD Review—Feb. 3, 2009—First Look, 99 min., R, $14.98—Making its second appearance on DVD, 2006's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints sports a good transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. DVD extras include audio commentary by director Dito Montiel and editor Jake Pushinsky, a 20-minute 'Shooting Saints' making-of featurette, 20 minutes of deleted scenes w/optional commentary, alternate openings and endings w/optional commentary (14 min.), an additional rooftop scene w/optional commentary (6 min.), 'The Full Monty' interview with costar Chazz Palminteri (2 min.), a 'Young Laurie Audition' with Diana Carcamo (2 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an uneven film that may have renewed interest given Oscar-nominee Robert Downey Jr.'s high-profile year.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Nov. 19, 2019—MVD Visual, 99 min., R, DVD: $14.95, Blu-ray: $26.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2006’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints features a decent transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Extras include audio commentary by director Dito Montiel, a 'Shooting Saints' making-of featurette (20 min.), deleted scenes with optional commentary (19 min.), an alternate opening and four alternate endings with optional commentary (14 min.), a 'Sundance Labs: Rooftop Scene' segment with optional commentary (6 min.), audition footage (2 min.), and a 'Full Monty' interview with Montiel’s father (2 min.). Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for this uneven film.]