Dito, a writer in L.A., goes home to Astoria, Queens, after a 15-year absence when his mother calls to say his father’s ill. In a series of flashbacks we see the young Dito, his parents, his four closest friends, and his girl Laurie, as each tries to navigate family, race, loyalty, sex, coming of age, violence, and wanting out. A ball falls onto the subway tracks at a station, small things get out of hand. Can Dito go home again?

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
  • Rating: (14,432 votes)
  • Taglines:Queens, New York, 1986. Sometimes the only way forward, is back. » Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back »
  • Runtime:100 minutes
  • Director: Dito Montiel
  • Country:USA
  • Actors:
    Flori
    Dianne Wiest
    Dito
    Robert Downey Jr.
    Young Dito
    Shia LaBeouf
    Young Laurie
    Melonie Diaz
    Diane (as Julia Garro)
    Laila Liliana
    Jenny
    Eleonore Hendricks
    Guiseppe
    Adam Scarimbolo
    Young Nerf (as Peter Tambakis)
    Peter Anthony Tambakis
    Young Antonio
    Channing Tatum
    Street Corner Puerto Rican (credit only)
    Anthony Tirado
  • Genres:Crime, Drama
  • Producers:
    Rene Bastian
    co-producer  
    Lucy Cooper
    line producer  
    Charlie Corwin
    producer  
    Robert Downey Jr.
    co-producer  
    Jonathan Elias
    co-producer  
    Alex Francis
    associate producer  
    Amanda Mackey Johnson
    executive producer (as Amanda Mackey) 
    Clara Markowicz
    producer  
    Linda Moran
    co-producer  
    Bobby Sager
    executive producer  
    Peter Sahagen
    executive producer  
    Sting
    executive producer  
    Trudie Styler
    producer  
    Travis Swords
    producer  
  • Plot: Dito, a writer in L.A., goes home to Astoria, Queens, after a 15-year absence when his mother calls to say his father's ill. In a series of flashbacks we see the young Dito, his parents, his four closest friends, and his girl Laurie, as each tries to navigate family, race, loyalty, sex, coming of age, violence, and wanting out. A ball falls onto the subway tracks at a station, small things get out of hand. Can Dito go home again? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
  • User's comment:One of my favs of the year by Henryhill51

    First time director Dito Montiel's "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints" is a harsh autobiographical look back at his youth on the mean streets of Astoria, Queens in the mid 1980's. From the film's opening moments, Montiel introduces us to an intimate world of family and friendship that totally blindsided me by its greatness. There are moments in "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints" that roll along with such force and emotion, that Montiel feels like a natural born filmmaker, infusing his personal heartache into strong characters breathing within a vivid time and place. Montiel's handling of edits, sound, and music are also powerful, such as a scene in Dito's kitchen between his father and group of friends that explodes into stark images and quick cuts to black. Montiel also handles the return home of Downey Jr. with care and vulnerability, searching for small answers that come in revelatory conversations with his mother (Dianne Weist) and grown up girlfriend Dianne (played by Rosario Dawson). And while such personal material can be hard to translate without lapsing into melancholy, Montiel finds a way to craft a clear eyed version of his life, allowing strong acting and electric film-making to take over the balance of the experience. I love finding unheralded gems such as this. The name of Robert Downey Jr. brought me to the theater and I discovered a true talent in Dito Montiel who has crafted one of the finest directing debuts in several years


  • Quotes: Frank: Listen to Dito. He knows when it's time to go. Frank: How loud is this fucking city? Dito: In the end - just like I said - I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me.
  • Also known as: Tus santos y tus demonios (Argentina), Tus santos y tus demonios (Mexico), Tus santos y tus demonios (Uruguay), Őrangyallal, védtelenül (Hungary), Egheiridio anagnorisis agion (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title), Guida per riconoscere i tuoi santi (Italy), Hayatindaki azizleri kesfetmi kilavuzu (Turkey - Turkish title), Il était une fois dans le Queens (France - imdb display title), Kids - In den Straßen New Yorks (Germany - DVD title), Memorias de Queens (Spain), Queens - kovat korttelit (Finland), Tavu sveto celvedis (Latvia), Wszyscy twoi swieci (Poland - imdb display title),

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