Grown-up Dito (Robert Downey Jr.), a successful author, returns home to Queens to face his old demons. From there, we flash back. Young Dito (Shia LaBeouf) befriends the school's new Scottish kid (Martin Compston) and becomes fascinated by the idea of forming a band and getting out of town. Meanwhile, his lifelong pals get into increasing trouble. His best friend, Antonio (Channing Tatum), wants to start a turf war with some taggers, and his relationship with beautiful Laurie (Melonie Diaz) teeters from good to bad.
Dito's rapport with his parents isn't much better. His father (Chazz Palminteri)—who seems to prefer Antonio's company—won't allow Dito to leave town. ("You wanna see China? Go to Chinatown!") His mother (Dianne Wiest) suffers through the fights but can't stop them.
The performances are top-notch, including a surprise Eric Roberts as the grown-up Antonio and Rosario Dawson as the grown-up Laurie. This is a complex web of characters, and there are plenty more, but Montiel handles them all, flashbacks and flash-forwards included, like a pro. He even manages a few moody touches, à la Michel Gondry, such as dropping out the sound or altering the sync for a dreamy effect.
It probably helps that, like Montiel's book, the film unfolds in episodes rather than a standard arc. He treats each scene as its own little burst of energy. It's when the film tries to connect story elements that it stumbles into conventionality But Guide does a remarkable job of surmounting the coming-of-age genre that has become so depressingly formulaic of late. It's as if everyone who makes one of these movies lived the exact same childhood. If nothing else, Montiel tells his own story as if it belonged to him.