** WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW **
I don't remember ever having seen a movie about adolescence in NYC's Latino neighborhoods so authentically portrayed. Victor, Judy, and the entire cast are so believeable, I feel like I've met them at some time in my youth. Victor's primping and posturing is hilarious, as is their exceptionally strong abuela. Victor's relatively innocuous teenage exploits are cleverly tied together and culminate at the dinner table as his grandmother pieces together Victor's hastily contrived scheme and blames him for the corruption of the other children. But devout Catholic Dominican grandmothers are prone to that. I read in a review that director Peter Sollett, who drew the cast from the Lower East Side, did not force the actors to memorize the script word for word. It was for that reason that the actors exuded an authenticity little seen from actors who are so young
Where I feel the script could have been improved is with clarification of cultural differences. It wasn't fully clear that the kids were doing something wrong when Judy visited Victor's apartment without his grandmother's prior consent. Victor's old-fashioned grandmother holds old-fashioned Latin values, and a prospective girlfriend visiting her home without prior introduction is inappropriate. I had to sit on this for a while before realizing it, and I realized this only because I've lived in NYC nearly my whole life and had enough Latina friends to inform me. Also, it seems that more needs to be said between Victor and Judy, and the development of their love. At least on Judy's part, the development of her feelings could have been more carefully considered; Judy's character has a complex history and her ice queen demeanor didn't appear out of nowhere. What exactly broke the ice queen exterior and changed her mind about Victor is still fuzzy to me. It seems to have had something to do with Victor's confession that he wants Judy to see how he "really lives" at home. But that wonderful moment on the street when Judy has a change of heart deserved much closer scrutiny and dramatic exploration.
All in all, "Raising Victor Vargas" is certainly the finest movie that I've seen this year. For a movie to generate the kind of criticism that I'm offering here is, in my experience, no mean feat. Victor Rasuk delivers an outstanding performance as a strong young man learning how to be a man with little guidance but trial and error.
I don't remember ever having seen a movie about adolescence in NYC's Latino neighborhoods so authentically portrayed. Victor, Judy, and the entire cast are so believeable, I feel like I've met them at some time in my youth. Victor's primping and posturing is hilarious, as is their exceptionally strong abuela. Victor's relatively innocuous teenage exploits are cleverly tied together and culminate at the dinner table as his grandmother pieces together Victor's hastily contrived scheme and blames him for the corruption of the other children. But devout Catholic Dominican grandmothers are prone to that. I read in a review that director Peter Sollett, who drew the cast from the Lower East Side, did not force the actors to memorize the script word for word. It was for that reason that the actors exuded an authenticity little seen from actors who are so young
Where I feel the script could have been improved is with clarification of cultural differences. It wasn't fully clear that the kids were doing something wrong when Judy visited Victor's apartment without his grandmother's prior consent. Victor's old-fashioned grandmother holds old-fashioned Latin values, and a prospective girlfriend visiting her home without prior introduction is inappropriate. I had to sit on this for a while before realizing it, and I realized this only because I've lived in NYC nearly my whole life and had enough Latina friends to inform me. Also, it seems that more needs to be said between Victor and Judy, and the development of their love. At least on Judy's part, the development of her feelings could have been more carefully considered; Judy's character has a complex history and her ice queen demeanor didn't appear out of nowhere. What exactly broke the ice queen exterior and changed her mind about Victor is still fuzzy to me. It seems to have had something to do with Victor's confession that he wants Judy to see how he "really lives" at home. But that wonderful moment on the street when Judy has a change of heart deserved much closer scrutiny and dramatic exploration.
All in all, "Raising Victor Vargas" is certainly the finest movie that I've seen this year. For a movie to generate the kind of criticism that I'm offering here is, in my experience, no mean feat. Victor Rasuk delivers an outstanding performance as a strong young man learning how to be a man with little guidance but trial and error.