Seen: April 18th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 6
Sharing ourselves is one of the most difficult things that we can do. In doing so, we expose ourselves to judgement, rejection and perhaps worst, indifference. We may have to look hard at ourselves, may need to deal with things that are at best unpleasant. But it is through this process that we may most deeply connect with others. Shared experience is one of, if not the strongest human connection. In A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints Dito Montiel shares his very life in an open honest, and intimate fashion.
And this is perhaps the greatest strength and largest downfall of the film.
The film is honest in amazing fashion. There is nothing here that is melodramatic. Nothing beyond reality, nothing over emphasized for dramatic effect. If anything, it is the subtle normality that makes this film so believable. There is no suspension of disbelief necessary here. The characters are so real, perhaps because they are real, that the illusion is complete.
While this is a great credit to Montiel, it's also and indication of the caliber of the performances. The cast is all-star in the best way. The entire cast disappears into the characters which Montiel has transported from Queens to the written page. The breathe life into his phantoms and make his illusion complete.
The very intimacy of this story, the very life that these characters take on, however, are one of the reasons that the film is not so appealing to me.
I'm not from New York. I did not grow up in a urban environment. While the things that these characters may have underlying universal themes, the context in which they lives is not one which I find interesting or appealing. The things they do, the way they live their lives are something I've not experienced, and thus these people are ultimately foreign to me.
Why is driving a car a big deal? Why is taking the train to Coney Island strange? Why is wanting to go somewhere far away so inconceivable? Why are vandalism and violence expected?
I'm not judging these characters, these people. I imagine that I'm as strange to them as they are to me. But ultimately I feel no connection to these people. I watch them as I'd watch a historical drama about life in Queens in the early '80s. If there is any fault in this, it is that the story is so real that it is only fully appreciable to those who have lived it in some way. It is so personal and specific that it may alienate those who don't share something with its characters.
See this film, especially if you grew up in this era and locale. It's an amazing piece of writing, directing and acting. My failure to appreciate it is mine alone.
The Good: Powerhouse writing and acting
The Bad: Perhaps too personal
The Ugly: Vicious cycles
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