Other Titles • Raising Victor Vargas (2002) • Long Way Home
Synopses for Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
1.
"A true find! Touching and energetically funny." - Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
Victor doesn't have much, but that's not stopping him from trying to go out with Judy, the prettiest girl on the block. All he's got is hope and a one-bedroom apartment he shares with his family. His grandmother doesn't trust him, his brother worships him, and his half-sister just declared war. But Victor thinks love really can conquer all in this warm, genuine and touching romantic comedy about life in the part of the city most people never see.
(53 votes)
2.
Riding high on a wave of unanimous critical acclaim, Raising Victor Vargas emerged as one of the best independent films of 2003. It fits neatly into that most familiar of categories--the coming-of-age comedy--but transcends that label to become something altogether fresh and endearing, beginning with the awkward swagger of its title character, played by Victor Rasuk. He's a Dominican kid raised amidst the poverty of New York's Lower East Side, and his hormones--like those of any 16-year-old--are ablaze with unbridled lust. Under the vigilant eye of his grandmother (who's hilariously convinced the good-boy Victor is doomed to a life of sin), Victor manages to woo the defiant girl of his dreams (Judy Marte--like the rest of this fine cast, a non-professional actor), and director Peter Sollett (expanding his earlier short Five Feet High and Rising) guides them to a delicate place of genuine affection and mutual understanding. It's a summertime fantasy, of sorts, but so simple and sincere that it achieves a state of idealized realism. First love never looked better. --Jeff Shannon
(49 votes)
3.
Manhattan's gritty, majestic Lower East Side is the sweltering romantic playground for Victor Vargas (VICTOR RASUK), a self-styled teenaged Casanova who, despite his adolescent hubris, has a lot to learn about love.
Eager to protect his street-cred after his friends discover he's been sleeping with upstairs neighbour "Fat Donna" (DONNA MALDONADO), Victor sets out to nab a new girl. Much to her annoyance, popular "Juicy Judy" Ramirez (JUDY MARTE) finds herself the object of Victor's relentless attention. After a humiliating series of public rejections, Victor strikes a bargain with Judy's younger brother Carlos (WILFREE VASQUEZ). In exchange for a date with Victor's younger sister, Vicky, Carlos will help Victor win Judy's affections. His plan proves successful and Judy agrees to tolerate him as "her new man," securing Victor's place high atop the neighbourhood's social pecking order.
Unfortunately, his hilariously cantankerous old-school grandmother (ALTAGRACIA GUZMAN), with whom he and his siblings live, is convinced that Victor's teen-age sexual antics make him a bad kid. Caught between regaining his grandmother's trust and helping his kid brother and sister negotiate the oft-baffling ways of the world, Victor discover that there's a difference between acting like a man and becoming one. As he and Judy slowly start to trust and be trusted, Victor learns that a lot of love has been put into RAISING VICTOR VARGAS.
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