In the gritty, autobiographical drama Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A, director Dito Montiel adapts his own memoir to paint a raw and unflinching portrait of coming of age in the violent streets of 1980s Astoria, Queens. The story follows Dito, a young man played by Shia LaBeouf in his youth and Robert Downey Jr. as an adult, who is haunted by the turbulent memories of his adolescence. Torn between a fiercely protective but hot-tempered father, played by Chazz Palminteri, and a gentle mother, portrayed by Dianne Wiest, young Dito navigates a world of loyalty, friendship, and brutal confrontations with a group of neighborhood misfits, including the volatile Antonio (Channing Tatum). As the years pass, the adult Dito is forced to confront the ghosts of his past when he returns home, grappling with the choices that defined his youth and the saints—both the good and the fallen—who shaped his identity. This intense, character-driven drama captures the claustrophobic energy of a working-class community where violence and love are often indistinguishable, offering a moving meditation on memory, redemption, and the inescapable pull of home.