The Son of No One (2011)

2/5

The Son of No One is a middling and uninspired character study of a rookie cop with a dark past and a ridiculous mustache. Tatum plays Officer White to utter mediocrity. He is unlikable, unsympathetic, and bland. All the other characters are even less appealing. The story is straightforward to the point of mind-numbing simplicity. Dito Montiel's directing is remarkable only because he manages to stretch out a 30-minute short story into a feature-length film by filling it with long pauses and shots of people deep in thought. The one thing I commend Montiel for is achieving a phenomenally dark atmosphere and tense mood throughout. It kept me on the edge of my seat, although I felt foolish for doing so after discovering the big picture. The mood, while well-done, placed an unnecessary heaviness on the film and made it altogether too dreary and depressing. I would avoid this hodgepodge of mediocrity unless you're a huge Channing Tatum fan (and even then you'll probably be disappointed by his silly facial hair and flat acting).

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535612/

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

3/5

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is the strangest film adaptation of a book I've ever seen, because it's also about what happens after the book was published. The movie centers around Dito as he comes back home to his sick father and remembers his past life experiences in the tough Astoria, Queens neighborhood of New York. As a gritty, realist coming-of-age drama, the movie works. The excess, about him coming back home after twenty years, felt worthless to me. The directing as a whole actually felt really creative, especially considering Montiel is not really a director. The editing style evoked a nostalgic mood, and most of the movie really felt like his memories, not his stories. An important sound would be remembered first, then the rest of the story. Black outs and sounds fading out at emotionally trying moments. Fuzzy audio or blurry video. All of these artistic decisions worked extremely well and made the movie much more personal to the viewer. The acting was very well done and I enjoyed it the entire time. The music also fit snugly with the mood.

Like I said, the second story about Dito coming back home felt worthless, and was especially disappointing since Robert Downey Jr. and Rosario Dawson were billed so high. Nothing physically happened at his return, nor did any emotion or sentiment that wasn't already previously expressed get uncovered. Luckily, it did not take up much of the movie. Sometimes the editing style irked me, even though I understand that that's probably how he remembered it. The shots were pretty mediocre and uninspired. I hated the font choice and usage. Some scenes felt really pointless (in the past too, not just the present). What I really hated was when he tried to copy Spike Lee and have the characters talk to the camera about "who they are." What pissed me off about it most was not that it was straight-up copying, but that it wasn't even necessary. It added nothing to the movie and only cheapened it. Overall though, I really enjoyed watching this movie and recommend it if this sounded interesting to you.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0473488/