Kids - In the streets of New York
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Kids - In the streets of New York |
| Original title | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ditto Montiel |
| script | Ditto Montiel |
| production |
Trudie Styler , Travis Swords , Charlie Corwin , Clara Markowicz |
| music | Jonathan Elias |
| camera | Eric Gautier |
| cut |
Jake Pushinsky , Christopher Tellefsen |
| occupation | |
| |
Kids - In the streets of New York (original title A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints ) is a 2006 drama film . Directed by Dito Montiel . The film is based on the autobiographical novel by Dito Montiel.
action
Ditto is a successful writer who lives in Los Angeles. When his mother Flori calls him one day and she asks him to come back to New York because Dito's father is seriously ill, he leaves LA and flies to his former hometown.
A time jump back to 1986 follows:
The young Dito lives as the only son of Irish and Puerto Rican immigrants in Astoria, a district of New York City. He spends most of his free time with his friends, Antonio, Nerf, and Giuseppe, on the streets of New York. One day on the train he met Mike O'Shea, a boy from Scotland who dreams of becoming a musician. The two become friends and dream of one day going to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a musician. To finance the trip, they work for a gay man named Frank, where they walk dogs.
One day Dito catches another teenager spraying the TSS Reaper word on the wall of Dito's apartment . When the latter confronts him, he is attacked by several members of an enemy street gang, in which Ditto's head is slightly injured. Antonio, Dito's best friend, swears revenge and the following night intimidates the gang leader's little brother, called Reaper, on a massive scale.
Ditto now increasingly spends his time with his work and his new friend Mike, which means that he does less and less with his old circle of friends. Meanwhile, Giuseppe, Antonio's brother, is run over by a train. It remains to be seen whether this is an accident or whether Giuseppe let himself be run over on purpose.
A few days later, Antonio and Nerf confronted Dito on the street in the evening. Antonio accuses Dito of having spent too little time with his friends, which he tries to deny. When Dito finally makes his way home after the argument, he is brutally beaten with a baseball bat by members of the Reaper gang, as punishment for intimidating Reaper's little brother. When the perpetrators let go of Dito, Antonio and Nerf rush over and drive him home despite the argument. At home, Dito's father, Monty, speaks to him, but Dito feels misunderstood and doesn't want to tell him about his problems at first. Finally, Laurie, Dito's friend, shows up as well, as he wants to inquire about his condition. Ditto finally tells his father Monty about his plans to move to California with Mike, which Monty clearly disagrees with and so leads to an argument in which Dito's father suffers a heart attack, which he barely survives.
A few days later, Dito, Mike and other youngsters from the neighborhood are in the Astoria Pool. Suddenly Nerf shows up and tells him that he and Antonio have seen Reaper and that the time for revenge has come. Contrary to the advice of Laurie and Mike, Dito follows his friend and meets Antonio a few corners further, who is already waiting for them. When Reaper is alone in a shop, Antonio runs across the street and inadvertently kills him with a baseball bat. Antonio is arrested the same evening.
Ditto and Mike, visibly shocked by Antonio's arrest, but now all the more determined to start a new life in California, set out to collect the money for Frank's payment. When he arrives at his apartment, he feels offended by the demand for payment and takes a gun and the money out of his refrigerator. But Ditto can convince Frank to just give them the money and let them go. When Dito and Mike are on their way home, Mike is shot dead by an enemy gang member as punishment for the death of their leader. Now that two of his friends are dead and one is imprisoned in prison, Dito sets out on his own for California to start a new, better life.
There follows another time jump to 2006:
Ditto is picked up at the airport by the drug addict Nerf. As promised, he visits his parents, but his visibly aged father only welcomes him repulsively, which hits Ditto hard. Offended, he leaves his parents' apartment and seeks advice from his childhood sweetheart Laurie, who is now a single mother of one son. She asks him to take his father to the hospital, as this is the least he can do for his father, Monty, who never recovered from the idea of being a bad father after his son left. Finally, after 20 years, Dito gets along with his father again and drives him to the hospital. The film ends with Dito visiting his friend Antonio in prison.
background
The film is based on the book of the same name by Dito Montiel, which was published in 2003 and has sold many in the USA. The script deviates from the novel in that Dito Montiel describes his life in it since the early 1980s and the time after he left Queens. He also reports on his short modeling career and the record deal with his band Gutterboy .
The novel has not yet been published in German.
Reviews and awards
The film received mostly good reviews from the critics. The acting and the cinematic implementation were praised.
Kids - In the streets of New York screened as a competition film at the Sundance Film Festival 2006. There the actors received the special prize of the jury and Dito Montiel the directing award . The film was nominated for the Grand Prix at the Flanders International Film Festival . At the 63rd Venice International Film Festival in 2006, the film won the Critics' Week Prize and the Isvema Prize.
Channing Tatum was nominated for the Breakthrough Award at the Gotham Awards 2006 , but had to admit defeat to Rinko Kikuchi ( Babel ) and Shareeka Epps ( Half Nelson ) .
“Youth and milieu study carried out by outstanding actors, based on the autobiography of the author and director. The film, which is oppressive due to its closeness to reality, creates an irritating simultaneity through abrupt changes between the present and memories of the youth of 1986. "
Web links
- Kids - In the streets of New York in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Kids - In the streets of New York in the dictionary of international films
- Kids - In the streets of New York on YouTube
swell
- ^ Certificate of Release for Kids - In the streets of New York . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2008 (PDF; test number: 112 889 DVD).
- ↑ English book review at www.powells.com