Our Chick Flick vs. Dude Flick Smack Down.

In this corner, we have the Chick Flick, Little Children, rated R, and weighting in at 138 minutes.

• A little long in the tooth, with rich moments of painful humor, the kind brought about because the subject matter is so uncomfortable or resonants so much you need to laugh. There is plenty of depth in this film, and the performances from Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson, are remarkable given a somewhat intricate plot, yet they deliver with clarity & simplicity. There is very little about this film that is pretty or beautiful, except maybe glimpses of Oscar winner, Connelly. Much of the dialogue & portrayal are often painfully real or just corny, like the flag football scenes. While the re-entry of Jackie Earle Haley, the rebel motorcycle kid from The Bad News Bears, playing the resident pedifile in Little Children is quite disturbing as a believable & tortured soul. The growing relationship between Winslet & Wilson's characters is intense; yet sadly understandable given their isolation, denial & often misguided efforts to upright & navigate their own marital homefronts. While the affair is far from honorable behavior, it rings real to life in their apparent mundane & hopeless suburban lives. GO SEE Little Children its a surpising & murky chick flick, and the erotic nature will keep the dude astute.

In the other corner, we have the Dude Flick, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, rated R, and weighting in at 104 minutes.

• Based in Queens, NY, this film nearly bridges the gender chasm, teetering on androgeny, primarily due to the ensemble of actors, and how they depict dysfunction cocooned in authentic & passionate relationships. There is a treasure trove of talent in this independent gem. From Shia LeBeouf, who plays young Dito in this coming of age journey, to his parents played by Dianne Wiest and Chazz Palminteri, to Channing Tatum, who plays young Antonio, Dito’s closest friend and a youth on the edge of destruction. Robert Downey, Jr. (plays adult Dito) and Rosario Dawson, both appear much later in the film as adults, portrayed as high school sweethearts who went their separate ways & lost touch over the years. Now all grown up, they reconnect for a few moments of healing. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is littered with hostility & violence, yet much of it is ‘boys will be boys’ genre. It is the interpersonal ties that keep you enthralled. One slip-up that the director or 2nd unit director, should have been more diligent to avoid, and a detail moviegoers may notice…cell phone towers atop apartment buildings in scenes that represent the early 80’s. Not a deal breaker, but certainly not believable even by Big Apple standards. But don’t let this blunder stop you, GO SEE, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.