The Robert Downey Jr Film Guide: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

True story of an underwear model who survived growing up in a tough neighborhood.

Low-medium. Most of the movie takes place in the 1980s, he is only in the present day scenes.

Dito, the main character returning to his old neighborhood.

Normal, a bit weary.

Rosario Dawson plays his ex, but all the sex and romance happens in the flashbacks.

Rosario Dawson, Shia LaBeouf, Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest, Eric Roberts

Saints is not a specific film. It’s a very symbolic film. It could’ve happened on the streets of Belfast. It can be about going back to anywhere that is ridden with strife and unresolved stuff ... Essentially this is a guy I’ve known for about 15 years or so. I knew him because I used to go to his readings and I like his band, Gutter Boy. I wasn’t the only one. There was Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol back in the day. So then all this time later it turns out he is working for Jonathan Elias’ music production company and I said, dude, I remember you. And then I read his book, and I get it and I say, this is a movie. It’s beautiful. My gal’s assistant’s wife says to me last night that she read the script and she says she was crying reading it and it just wrenched her gut. And I was just like, wow, we worked on that for almost two years now. And that was really cool. That was one of the real internal highlights of last night ... [Dito Montiel] wrote a book about growing up in Queens in ‘86. You couldn’t write something this insane about Catholic boys growing up and what happens. It’s a spiritually poignant story ... My first thought about making Saints into a movie was, “I don’t want to walk into the office of a quintessential Hollywood producer with this.” Dito and I are, first and foremost, friends. There are a lot of creeps in the netherworld between true indies and studio movies and a lot of producers who will give up on a project too easily. Not Trudie Styler. She’s a really savvy business woman, but once she sets her mind on something she won’t stop until she succeeds ... [Trudie Styler] really kicked our ass to get the right script. She was really diligent. At one stage she had me, Dito, and her Head of Development Alex Francis basically locked into a room in her apartment in New York, and wouldn’t let us out until we’d nailed the structure. She was pretty much working on the project when I wasn’t, and when I’d come out of an acting gig we’d go and work together on it some more ... The scenes are written like an improvisation that was taped but really it’s just the way we did it. It’s like when you go back and you regret improvising in a movie because a plane went over and now you have to try to match that thing. Sometimes it was like trying to catch up to a vehicle that was already in motion. But then that’s just another way to be uptight. You set the conceit of the scene, what’s happening, and you follow it ... My preliminary prep for the movie was like, “I’m here. Try this on. Here’s the sides.” Go back home, pick out napkins for your wedding which is in fucking 48 hours and then we’ll just shoot 1100 scenes and some other stuff. And just make sure you really demonstrate what a miserable guy you can be on this labor of love ... The day before I started shooting I watched Dito and everyone shoot the scene in church where Antonio flips out. I’d heard the kid [LaBeouf] was great, and he was, and we talked. But we didn’t get into any heavy technical stuff. I think it probably works simply because it’s an example of good casting. But the key might have been that neither one of us were trying to play Dito per se ... It’s like, Dito, did you train? Do you know how to box? And he’s like, “I got an idea.” And he goes in, and that’s where the movie starts. Then it goes back to his past and how he grew up. It’s great. It’s a story about my generation. So that’s one thing, I’m producing that. In the last two years we’ve taken it from the book to a script.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints by Dito Montiel
Montiel wrote the script, based on his autobiography.

1980s and present day (2006) Astoria, New York.

Robert Downey Jr was instrumental in getting this movie made. He approached Montiel, encouraged him to write and direct the film, and got Sting and Trudie Styler on board as producers.

Released in theaters 29 September 2006. On DVD in region 1, 2 and 4.

Argentina: Tus Santos y Tus Demonios (Your Saints and Your Demons)
Brazil: Santos e Demônios (Saints and Demons)
Finland: Queens: kovat korttelit (Queens: Hard Blocks)
France: Il était une fois dans le Queens (Once Upon a Time in Queens)
Germany: Kids In den Straßen New Yorks (Kids in the Streets of New York)
Italy: Guida per riconoscere i tuoi santi (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints)
Latvia: Tavu sSeto Celvedis (Your Holy Guide)
Poland: Wszyscy Twoi Swieci (All Your Saints)
Spain: Memorias de Queens Memoirs of Queens

75% Fresh | 93 Reviews

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Although [Shia LaBeouf] and Downey don’t resemble each other physically, they bring a similar cockiness to the role that makes it seem like they could be the same guy. They’re both tightly wound. But as the young Dito still believes there’s a big world outside of Queens to conquer, the older one displays a kind of world weariness. Downey is hypnotic, especially in scenes where he revisits haunts from his youth.

Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe: The first-time filmmaker aspires to show us what caused him to leave his neighborhood and stay gone for 20 years. All I can really glean is that the place was too loud. The film’s epicenter is the elevated subway. And any time a conversation can culminate in expletive-laced screaming, it does.

1. At five years in the making, it was one of the most anticipated Downey movies.
2. The indie film made a splash at Sundance.

The gritty coming of age story is hard to get into, even though on the surface it feels like it should be a great movie.