A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Though infused with an evocative and downright authentic vibe by first-time filmmaker Dito Montiel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is ultimately undone by Montiel’s relentlessly ostentatious visual sensibilities – to the extent that it becomes increasingly difficult to genuinely care about the plight of any of the movie’s many characters. Based on the director’s real-life experiences, the film follows an adult Montiel (Robert Downey Jr.) as he reminisces about his tumultuous teen years – where he (Shia LaBeouf) and his friends (led by Channing Tatum’s Antonio) are perpetually on the verge of either being beaten halfway to death or sent to prison. Montiel’s use of various cinematic tricks, including grainy, jittery camerawork and disorienting editing techniques, ultimately transforms what should have been a gritty little coming-of-age story into a fairly interminable experience, and although there’s certainly no faulting the actors, the relentlessly unpleasant vibe virtually negates the picture’s few positive attributes.

** out of ****