Very Cool!!!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

As someone who lives in the area of the movie was filmed I can properly say if this movie is representing Astoria as it should be. I think the way this movie was represented from the book I think was done beautifully. The way It switches to past to present when something important happens to one of the characters we see them how that leads them to the future in the neighborhood.One thing I didn't like about the film was one death that they did. The death of Mike O'Shea. They killed him right after the reaper had died and his friend with the gun kills him. Why was he looking for them specifically, why would he be looking for them and not Antonio. The relationship with Dito and his dad is a little dysfunctional. His dad felt bad for Antonio because of his situation with his dad. He wanted to help someone without a dad by being their father figure.

In 2005, Dito Montiel (Robert Downey Jr) is a successful writer with a book called "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" about growing up in Astoria, Queens. He's going home after many years in L.A. In 1986, young Dito (Shia Labeouf) is hanging out with his group of friends. There are Diane, Jenny and Laurie who he likes. Brothers Antonio (Channing Tatum) and Giuseppe come from a troubled home. Nerf likes his chemicals too much. Dito befriends new kid Mike O'Shea from Scotland and together they start working for gay druggie dog walker Frank. Antonio doesn't like the growing distance between them. Dito get into an ongoing fight with Reaper and his friends who keeps tagging his neighborhood. He loves his mother (Dianne Wiest) but struggles with his father (Chazz Palminteri). Dito wants to move to California for which his father threatens to disown him.It's a good coming-of-age story. Shia is doing good work that he does from time to time. Channing Tatum shows early signs of his acting abilities. He's very good in this. There are some moments of overacting. I never really bought into the father son conflict. Maybe I simply don't understand it. The movie needs to explain it better. It has to be more than about Dito moving away. There is also a bit too much of the present day story. I like the modern segments but I wish they were shorter and tighter. There are some small problems but there are good acting in a good story.

I'm not good at rating anything that you can rate, so I'm going to say I liked it. I don't care about the actors that were used or the story but I'll note that my favorite character was Guiseppe, but mainly because there was a lot about him that the movie subtly showed in his actions and attitude. He seemed like one of the most interesting characters. I think the worst character in the film was Antonio since he didn't do much good at all, he only accelerated the trouble that was to come with his rash actions. The movie did portray the character's and their relationships with each other well though, Dito's differences from his father were clearly shown and emphasized by Antonio basically being the son Dito's father would've wanted.

The movie has man great things about it. First off, the setting is really well portrayed and well shown in every scene. The characters in this movie are really built through their back stories, which are only shown for a few seconds. The visuals are very gritty, making me look away from the screen for a few seconds, but either than that, it's well scripted, great well know actors, and a pretty good auto biography turned into a movie. Second, it really shows how bad Astoria, Queens was back in the 80's, but also shows the struggles all the teens had to go through with drugs, gangs, and peer pressure. Not only that, it also shows the struggle they went through to earn money.