''Least Among Saints'' is a 2012 American drama film written by, directed by, and starring Martin Papazian with Tristan Lake Leabu,

Laura San Giacomo Laura San Giacomo (born November 14, 1961 or 1962) is an American actress. She played Cynthia in the film ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Kit De Luca in the film ''Pre ...

and Charles S. Dutton.

Plot

Anthony (Papazian) is a former Marine who has just returned to his home in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

after a tour abroad. He suffers from

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...

, frequently waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares. His ex-wife Jenny (Anderson) has filed a restraining order against him, and he has had brush-ins with the law. He befriends his neighbor Cheryl (Cook), whom he defends from her boyfriend. Cheryl's son Wade (Leabu) looks up to Anthony, and the two become friends. One night, when Anthony is about to attempt suicide, Wade comes in asking him to help his mother, who has overdosed on

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

. Anthony takes them to University Medical Center to try to help her, but she dies. A social services worker named Jolene (San Giacomo) agrees to let Anthony take care of Wade while they find him a foster family. Anthony encourages Wade to beat up a bully and restrains a teacher who tries to intervene, which brings in police officer George (Dutton) to find them after they go on a mission to find Wade's real father. Wade accidentally kills Anthony's dog and Anthony is arrested on numerous charges. Wade goes into foster care. Anthony agrees to Jolene's demands to take care of himself and she finally allows him to spend time with Wade.

Cast

* Martin Papazian as Anthony * Tristan Lake Leabu as Wade *

as Jolene * Azura Skye as May * Audrey Marie Anderson as Jenny * A.J. Cook as Cheryl * Charles S. Dutton as George * Taylor Kinney as Jessie *

Lombardo Boyar Lombardo Boyar (born December 1, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role as Chuy in ''The Bernie Mac Show'' and for voicing Lars Rodriguez in '' Rocket Power''. Career Lombardo is a veteran of the United States Army, ...

as Armando * Kari Nissena as Beth * Max Charles as Dylan *

Ronnie Gene Blevins Ronnie Gene Blevins (born June 20, 1977) is an American character actor. He is best known for his role as small-time criminal Willie Russell in the 2013 film '' Joe'', directed by David Gordon Green. Career His TV credits include '' NCIS'', '' ...

as Ronnie

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has a score of 36% based on 11 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a score of 32 out of 100 based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews, but an 87% rating from audiences. Anthony Barker of ''

Daily Variety ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

'': "Papazian registers best as an actor, realistically inhabiting his post-traumatic-stress-tormented ex-Marine protag, Anthony... . Acting is solid if unremarkable all around, with San Giacomo the sharpest of the supporting bunch." Simon Abrams of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'': "There's no amount of emotional distress that macho brooding can't fix in Least Among Saints, a monotonous drama centered on a PTSD-afflicted Gulf War II soldier's search for canned redemption. The emotional stakes of writer/director/star Martin Papazian's feature directorial debut are almost exclusively defined by clichés" Chuck Bowen of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'': "Tonally, Least Among Saints is reminiscent of the low-rent action films released under the

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

banner... The film is simply, particularly for its sensitive subject matter, inexcusably absurd... but as a story meant to take place on some rational version of planet Earth, it's utterly hopeless."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1937222 2012 films Films set in Tucson, Arizona Films shot in Los Angeles American independent films Vertical (film company) films 2012 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films