I went to "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" knowing nothing about it other than it's a coming of age flick. I was unprepared for the emotional wallop that I received. It's unremittingly gritty and very disturbing. It gets under your skin. I wanted to fall asleep or leave but I couldn't. It was like watching multiple train wrecks. It's a low budget indie, written and directed by Dito Monteil based on his autobiography. He grew up in a grim section of Astoria, Queens, and all he could think about was getting out. He did, but he never got Astoria out of him.

New York City in the '70's was not a pretty place, especially the boroughs. The City was explosive, dirty, full of garbage and grafitti. It was a different world back then, and this movie brought all the dark, smoldering underside back to me.

The el (elevated subway) looms large in the film. It towers over Dito's apartment. Young Dito meets Mike, a recent immigrant from Scotland whose teacher introduces Mike to the class as an Irish boy. Mike corrects the teacher who looks at him blankly and shrugs. Mike introduces Dito to the joys of taking the el just for the heck of it, just to see other places. But Dito's father doesn't understand that; he sees Dito's traveling to Coney Island as traitorous. "You're never gonna leave here. Dito's never going anywhere," was the father's mantra. Dito fought that tooth and nail, and dragged himself away from the overwhelming hoplessness and consumate dead end that was his neighborhood

I'd heard that Robert Downey was miscast. I disagree. The youngsters who star are terrific. My god, I thought I was watching kids I'd grown up with, they were cast so realistically.

"A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" is a remarkable film, but not for everyone.