Raising Victor Vargas

reviewed by Charles T. Markee

Raising Victor Vargas (2002)

This Indie film received some praise from the Wall Street Journal in April, 2003, and I took note. It won three awards and was a popular favorite at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It's very well done, good acting and a representative slice of Latino life in the Lower East Side of New York.

Victor lives in a small rundown apartment with his younger brother and sister, Nino and Vicki and his grandmother who emigrated from the Dominican Republic. The storyline focuses on seventeen-year-old Victor and his obsession with girls, although there are other girl-boy relationships and family conflicts as background. The beginning of the film is filled with four-letter-words, but overall, the dialogue feels authentic.

Victor's assignation with "fat Donna" is discovered in the opening scenes and this creates the initial problem plot point. The story follows a traditional short story form through rising tensions, climax and a change in the protagonist.

It's a pretty valid look at poor tenement living, underclass Latino teen culture and both religious and family ties. The relationships are handled sensitively and all the acting impressed me. I really loved the grandmother role that was played by Altagracia Guzman. At age 70, this was her first film and she used her real name in the story.

Given it's only a short vignette in an hour and a half film, the missing character development is understandable, yet still frustrating. For example, we don't know anything about the main character except for his overactive libido and his negotiating skills and we don't know how Nino became a good classical pianist. It was a good film, but these things could have made it better. Peter Sollett wrote the story and the screenplay and directed this film, his second. The next one should be better.

MPAA: Rated R for strong language.

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