Altagracia Guzman, Donna Maldonado, Judy Marte

A self-styled teenage Romeo, from Manhattan's Lower East Side, is bent on seducing a girl who appears to be well beyond his reach. However, his reputation for seduction, along with the fact that he li...( read more  read more... )ves with his grandmother and bothersome brother in a tiny tenement, complicate his plans.

Flixster Users

84% liked it

4,860 ratings

Critics

96% liked it

104 critics

R, 1 hr. 28 min.

Directed by: Peter Sollett

Release Date: March 28, 2003

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DVD Release Date: August 26, 2003

Stats: 290 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (290)


  • August 9, 2009
    Cute and weird. But worth the watch.
  • July 9, 2008
    I'm sure this movie has been called "honest" or "authentic" like five million times, but it's an excellent descriptor for it. It is a simple film, but avoids the Independent Cinema Delusion of substituting meaning for inertia. It's inventive and fun, allowing its drama to be temp...( read more)ered with a sense of humor and light yet believable characters.

    Man, I wrote a much better review of this for class. Fuck this shit.
  • April 10, 2008
    When I first saw this movie sitting in a bin of ultra cheap DVDs, the title rang some kind of bell. I'm still not exactly sure what that bell was, because I have no idea even why I would have heard of this movie.

    Peter Sollett--a native Brooklynite--writes and directs the story ...( read more)of Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk), a Dominican kid on the Lower East Side who tries to live life as he knows how to live it. His grandmother (Altagracia Guzman) is deeply religious and a first generation immigrant to the United States and does not understand Victor's behaviour at all, especially when contrasted with her granddaughter Vicki de la Cruz (Krystal Rodriguez) who spends her time sitting on the couch watching television and her other grandson Nino (Victor's actual brother Silvestre) who does his best to please his grandmother, playing piano and going to Mass. Victor, though, is more interested in girls, first seen preparing to have sex with "Fat Donna" (Donna Maldonado) until his friend Harold (Kevin Rivera) calls him out on it--nearly destroying Victor's (largely made up, I suspect) reputation as a "ladies' man." The two go to a pool and from there both take parallel but varying paths into attracting two girls--"Juicy" Judy Gonzalez (Judy Marte) and Melonie (Melonie Diaz). Victor attempts the macho swagger he thinks attracts women with Judy while Harold tries a fumbling even worse representation of the same approach with Melonie. Both girls are very wary of boys in general, but especially of these two.

    There's a lot of back and forth nattering on IMDb as to the "reality" or "truth" of the movie, and I can't say that I'm Dominican or from the Lower East Side, but certainly the way that all of these--mostly unknown at the time--actors put together their characters (allegedly composed on a major scale from improvisation, being denied access to Sollett's script) was very real to me. I have heard the speech patterns before without a doubt, and the swagger held just the right element of falsity and hidden insecurity in Victor, who eventually reveals himself as more scared and lonely than he first appears. The condescending and defensive behaviour by Melonie when confronted with Harold's advances--usually leading to a reluctant acquiescence, one that tends to look as lacking in reluctance as it probably should be considering the way she reacts to him--is fantastically real. To see these behaviours approached in this fashion is refreshingly honest, with no explanation given, except in behaviour that correlates to real behaviour, for the incongruity in reaction and intention from these characters.

    Altagracia's performance is one of the most exciting (if that's even the right word, which I can't say I'm sure about) in that she manages to portray a woman who finds the behaviour of her own grandchildren alarmingly alien, eventually completely lost as to how they have become this way and why they are so "bad" and "uncontrollable." She is not bad, she is just ignorant--which I mean only in the literal sense--and simply cannot translate the world that she lives in now from the one she remembers, where all three were young babies for her to take care of.
  • March 29, 2008
    Teen hormones and love in hot New York. Victor has to balance his desire to seduce Judy with the fact that his Grandma will kick him out if he tries any funny business. The fact that the actors are amateurs results in a very moving film.
  • March 29, 2009
    A great indie movie about summer love in the Lower East Side.
  • August 21, 2009
    The more I think about this movie the more I'm warming up to it. This coming-of-age romance is a gentle film that is both authentic and genuine due to the honest and raw performances from the two main leads in focus.
  • July 16, 2009
    Simple but beautiful little story with great interpretations. Greatly written and directed.
  • January 3, 2009
    Another cheesy teen movie, that I imagine is quite predictable.
  • November 22, 2008
    Genuine as can be without ever getting too sentimental or too dramatic - true to life drama of a young teen growing up on the lower East Side of Manhattan. He lives with his younger brother and sister and being raised by his grandmother. It's mostly about that akward time in a y...( read more)oung man's life between being a boy and being a man & the discovery of that defining moment. Very nice.
  • October 4, 2008
    wow what a shocking movie...i have just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is an exellent movie 2 watch....its got a really good cast of characters throughout this movie...i think that the director of this Drama, Art House & International movie had done a really goo...( read more)d job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie its really enjoyable throughout this movie its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie i think that this is a really good/enjoyable movie 2 watch because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie

Critic Reviews


October 14, 2003
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

Peter Sollet's "Raising Victor Vargas" is a special film, independent in the truest sense of the word. full review

April 25, 2003
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

First-time writer/director Peter Sollett, working with mostly nonprofessional actors who live in the neighborhood in which the film is set, has caught something lovely in that golden summer light. full review

April 18, 2003
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It's the kind of movie you know you can trust, and you give yourself over to affection for these characters who are so lovingly observed. full review

April 18, 2003
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

The R rating is understandable, but absurd. This is a family film in the most complicated and, ultimately, most cheering sense. full review

April 2, 2003
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

A modest and tightly focused picture, and its very directness makes it piercingly intimate. full review

March 21, 2003
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

A coming-of-age movie that really nails it. full review

View more Raising Victor Vargas reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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