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True fans of film will love this authentic movie.

I disagree with the trolls who are rating this movie a one-star and calling it unrealistic. While I don't have the background or come from the environment of the protagonists, I've spent many years working in lower income and working class neighborhoods and feel the acting was very real and representative of how teenagers behave. I don't know what the basis is for others' comments that the film is "unrealistic". The dialog is great.

The low budget production value didn't bother me a bit. I felt that the natural lighting enhanced the character of the film. The focus was entirely on the story line and character development and not glitzy Hollywood propping or melodrama.

I completely bought into the character's motivations and reactions. The acting was believable and impressive for new and non-actors.

If your idea of good film is Transformers or Fast & Furious, then skip it. If you enjoy good character driven dramas, then see it.

(Regarding the negative commenters being "trolls": click on their names and you will see most have no other reviews or only negative reviews.)

I don't know, but I'm feeling a 9 in this. 8 I think is accurate, if not a 7.

Raising Victor Vargas is one great film. It takes us into the life of a poor young kid, the oldest of three children who live with their grandmother (who is as funny as she is entertaining to watch by the way). Victor thinks of himself as a player, and proves it by getting the most beautiful girl that his friends all could only dream of having. She is fantastic, and you don't see race or looks the same way here. You envision the world through Victor's eyes truly. You cheer Victor on as he gets this girl, and feel proud of him almost as a father to a son.

This is a great film. The story goes on smoothly and you don't get bored. It's a simple story actually. Guy wants girl, gets girl, and tries to keep girl. But it's just played out not necessarily with lots of emotion, or not even necessarily realistically. It's just awesome to watch.

I truly enjoyed this film. It's perhaps a top 100 best for me.

8 stars

Victor is a brash teen who sees himself as a player. His younger sister Vicki catches him with neighbor Fat Donna and tells everyone. At the pool with best friend Harold, he tries to talk up Judy but she won't have any part of him. She's there with best friend Melonie and brother Carlos. Victor promises Carlos to set him up with Vicki for an intro to Judy. Victor lives with Vicki, brother Nino, and his grandmother.

Victor is such an annoying self-obsessive lip-licking caricature male teen that it's nearly impossible to root for him. He is aggressively trying to throw the audience by being a jerk. It makes it an unappealing watch for most of the first half. It does have an authenticity about the young characters. It would be easier to make it darker rather than being a light romantic comedy. It could have also been better to make Judy the protagonist rather than Victor. Carlos and Vicki are funny secondary relationship.

Raising Victor Vargas is a marginally victorious coming-of-age story. I raise my glass to many of the social components of this film about an inner city boy and his adolescent ordeals with this family, friends, and girls. However, one negative attribute of `Raising Victor Vargas' is its unduly simplified screenplay. Ok, here is how Victor Vargas was raised: through its early development stage, the film indulges on Victor- the inner city teen Don Juan and his controlling grandmother, admiring brother, and confrontational sister. In its adolescent stage, the film switch gears to Judy- the fem teen head turner who Victor falls for. During its adulthood stage, the film does focus on mature themes such as masturbation, temptation, and investigation. `Raising Victor Vargas' does attain a mid-life crisis by encompassing various shallow underdone scenes. During its geriatric stage, the movie does obtain social security status by presenting significant social messages. `Raising Victor Vargas' is not a clear-cut victorious film but it's not a mortal one either.

*** Average

I've skimmed through other comments and saw that most were negative and only pointed out the bad parts of the film. I'm a Latina living in NYC, an I have to say that the film captured much of the real life that goes on around here. Although Victor just makes all guys seem dirty, when that isn't the case.

I have to admit there were some bad parts, and I won't go describing them because so many people before me have, so I'll just go to the good stuff. The family is great. The grandma shows the typical crazy lady who refuses to believe that her kids are growing up (my mother and my friends' family are proof and support such a stereotype)and the boys really do act like that. No, seriously. A girl can't walk down the street around here without getting hounded like that.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and although I've seen better, I can't say it was awful.

Why anyone would rate this unfavorably is beyond me? Loved this movie. All the talk about ethnicity I think was out of place. To me it was more a story of a grandmother trying to raise kids going into puberty yet still holding fast to her values, though she learns eventually to be flexible. And for those too crass or wounded to remember what innocence was like and coming to terms with trying to mature as a teenager, maybe they should watch this film till the'penny drops'and they 'get it!' Superb film, especially from a filmmaker just starting out.

Judy Marte was extraordinary. Her eyes captivate and her face gives off this air of mystery. I found myself wanting to delve more into the character she was portraying by her acting. I hope more good roles come her way to showcase her talent. The entire cast were enjoyable.

While the story is fiction, the feeling and appearance of this movie is documentary like in its gritty reality. If the movie had make-up artists and wardrobe consultants they should get many kudos for making up believe in the reality of what the movie contains. The apartments, the people, and the scenes are authentic. There is no attempt to brush away stereo-types about cultures or lifestyles. If you let yourself you can really feel like you're there with these awkward adolescent characters who are struggling to find themselves and someone to trust in the harsh reality of the world. Its a good solid movie to be appreciated for how it depicts life as it really is for many people. Its a movie you have to see to really understand. It doesn't go for the hard shock values of "Kids", but it makes you feel that you are walking right down the street in your own sneakers feeling the pebbles on the asphalt underneath your feet and the grit under your finger nails.

I saw this film a while back and it's still at the top of my 'favorite movies' list. It is amazingly put together and what really makes the film are the detailed tid bits (such as the 'Cafe Bustelo' coffee crate being reused as a cup to wash her grandsons hair) that people aren't seeing because YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS MOVIE UNLESS YOU ARE HISPANIC. This is just one of those films that is very culturally specific and particular. Please do not bash this film if you have no prior knowledge of what foundation it's being built upon. I completely see what the writer/director was going for, and he hit the target perfectly! This film is highly deserving of a better rating.

This movie sucks. It is about a Latino teenager whose plight is that he is discovered having sex with a fat girl, and spends the movie trying to win the heart of a pretty girl so that he can restore his pride. Raising Victor Vomitus is in the league of Better Luck Tomorrow - another film which attempts to reveal the intricacies of a cultural group - but which really only makes everyone look stupid. My conclusion after seeing these two really egregious films is that if you are curious about Latino or Asian youths - the best way to satisfy that curiousity is to meet some of them, read a book, or wait until a good movie comes out. However, if you want to waste money, be bored, and learn nothing - get a pedicure. At least you will have something to show for it.

I enjoyed this cute little movie. It is the light comedy that feels contained and well realized. The actors--unknown--non professionals are extremely likeable. The camera is unobtrusive and reminded me about "George Washington" which shared the DP services with Vargas DP Tim Orr. If the film has a fault is that its decidedly modest ambitions keep the dramatic stakes very low. There's not much to engage the audience. But all in all--an adorable, embracing work.

RAISING VICTOR VARGAS – 9.3/10

Director: Peter Sollett

Writer: Peter Sollett

With an unknown cast and coming from a debut director, the film turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Raising Victor Vargas is a 'coming of age' film, if one might call it that, but in every sense of the word, extremely mature. With no special effects or dazzling visuals, Raising Victor Vargas is a must watch for sakes of storytelling and scriptwriting.

The film revolves around the story of a youngster Victor Vargas, a Dominican teenager, played exceptionally well by Victor Rasuk. Victor, who is out to regain his image after word of his affair with a 'fat' girl leaks to the neighborhood. To rise to his old glory, he must win over the pretty Judy Marte ('Juicy' Judy Gonzalez). For most parts, the story is just that. While detailing it any further would lead to spoilers, watch out for the most interesting aspects of the film, which in this case are precisely those parts which seem least relevant.

The film manages to charm, delight and appease with the smallest of details, ones that are almost always overlooked in films seeking to be larger than life. It is as though the writer/director has understood the simplest secret of storytelling. He deals with nuances of the youth, the teenagers and their daily lives in a very refined and mature manner. Not succumbing to obvious temptations of problems facing the youth, the director dodges all the clichés, from drugs to violence, from rape to vengeance.

There isn't really much to say about the film. It is shot in a few locations, with limited characters and resources. Yet the performances are fantastic, the script is simple and funny, the acting is outstanding. The film flows from one scene to the next and very soon without actually realizing it, we are living the lives of the characters, laughing and smiling with them, cheering and hooting for them. Sadly, we haven't seen a lot from Sollett since 2002; hope he makes an appearance soon.

This is real life for a segment of the population that do not have much of anything, don't have two dishes that match and are not exactly well-represented in the world of cinema. Its all so real that if I was told this was a documentary and these guys with video cameras just filmed the lives of the people in the movie, I wouldn't second-guess it for a minute.

It started out a bit uneasy for me. I thought it was just going to be a prolonged quest for these two guys to get some action at the local pool. But when the entire family is introduced, and the quest for action became a reluctant friendship, I started to recognize and appreciate what I was seeing. People exactly like this could easily live ten blocks away from me in Brooklyn (its never specified, but I think they're in the Bronx or upper Manhattan, but it could be anywhere urban).

I bet the budget for this was about the same as that cyborg Tom Cruise makes in one day for his latest blockbuster. Movies like this make me hate people like him even more because he's so far removed from the human condition that it isn't even funny. And in terms of money, forget it. This movie has more value than his last twelve movies.

Thanks to all the artists involved in the making of this movie. I'll never forget it. 10/10.

this movie is not terrible; even though its realness feels very contrived sometimes, its actually pretty good in comparison to most teen romances; i found it very easy to relate to because i've found myself in victor's situation, abstractly speaking, on several occasions; unfortunately, its not "different" enough to receive credit from the "true" indie crowd, don't let the negative reviews scare you, see the movie for yourself and have an open mind; believing that raising victor vargas is a very cerebral, underground movie is a mistake, however it is much more interesting to watch when you consider all the other silly, hacked together, teen-aged romances

Wow, I almost missed this gem of a movie! Don't you make the mistake of passing on it.

Fresh, sweet, funny and very real! Everything about this film is just fantastic. The acting, the writing, the camera work, I loved it all! Definitely a slice of life I never experienced, but at the same time, I knew this family, these people and related to them so well.

This is a remarkable thing that rarely happens, but the reason I love good cinema.

This film captures the true struggle with identity that is ongoing in our teenage years. It is really moving and it feels strangely like a documentary-not contrived but very real. It is very interesting and unsettling

Superb and deeply moving first-time independent film, focused on

a latino family living on the Lower East side of New York.



Ebullient 17-year old Victor has the hots for the local beauty queen

Judy, but she's too cool for him. At least, that's how it is at the start.

But then her pal Melonie takes a shine for Victor's pal Harold.

Meanwhile, Victor's got problems at home, as his Grandma is

trying to give him to the social services because she's convinced

he's corrupting his younger brother Nino and driving his sister

crazy.



Working with a cast of non actors, writer/director Peter Sollett has

constructed a marvel, full of the energy of its teenage subjects but

without for a second lapsing into condescension towards them.

The script is tight and funny, but the real jewel in this film are the

frankly startling performances. The shockingly unaffected acting

reminds you of just powerful it is to see people being utterly

simple. The lack of self-consciousness evinced by the entire cast

is far, far more affecting than any degree of actorly hysteria.



A deeply refreshing and unmissable first feature.

Not too dramatic, but still lively and entertaining. Realistic and human. Warm, good movie. I thought the characters were touchable. I especially liked the little brother's character. His younger sister was a lively depiction of everything we hate about little sisters. The grandmother's character was very believable, well played and dynamic. I felt myself feeling hopeful for the family when they were attempting "the new beginning". This movie was a mature, big step away from the stereotypical movies created featuring Hispanic people. It was also more intimate and more believable. I enjoyed it more than what I expected to. A nice movie.

Raising victor Vargas is just a bad film. No amount of denial or ad-dollar supported publicity with change this sad fact.

Maybe Peter Sollett saw he didn't have the money to do the movie he wanted to make and decided to take the easy way out by making a bad film that cynically apes the tenets of current "edgy film-making". Maybe he just doesn't know any better. It's hard to tell.

What's not hard to tell is the result. Except for a few viewers who will intellectualize the bad film-making into an attempt at pseudo-realism, few will enjoy it.

I know I didn't.

Do yourselves a favor and pass on this film.