A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints - Review

To quote an oft-mocked trailer for a recent action movie, never forget where you came from. It's a bit of sound advice that Dito Montiel seems to have taken to heart with the release of his book A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. That is, until he returns home for the first time in 15 years.

Here we see the sick father whose love he rejected. We see the young lover he left behind. We see the friends he abandoned and the lives he forgot in his desperation to leave his inner city neighborhood. But most of all, we see the events that caused all of it, and how it was almost unavoidable, in this deeply personal Sundance film.

Summer 2011 In Review

This summer, I managed to snag a job reviewing for my town newspaper. As a result, I saw more movies this summer than I ever have in my very brief and insignificant existence. There were some highs and some lows, but this summer saw a significant redemption from last year's crapfest (excluding Inception and Toy Story 3, of course). Here is what I thought of the films I saw.