Review

Review Date: 1-June-03
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Raising Victor Vargas (2003)

Much as I'd like to believe that we all have stories to tell, the fact is that you would end up with some pretty poor movies if you were to point a camera at most of the people you know, live near, work with, or pass by during a normal week or month. Truth may be stranger than fiction, sometimes, but more often than not it's monotonous, obscure, banal, and appallingly devoid of meaning. This makes it all the more impressive when someone manages to make a movie about average people, without sex or violence or action, that is at once authentic, thoughtful, and entertaining. "Raising Victor Vargas" is just such a film.

Victor Rasuk stars as a cocky New York teen who fancies himself the master of his destiny, which appears to be that of a self-centered Lothario coasting on empty lines and the frequent application of a winning but faithless smile. In the absence of both parents, Victor is the nominal man of his household, which also includes a strict, old-fashioned grandmother (Altagracia Guzman), a sweet-tempered brother eager to learn the ways of the studly (Silvestre Rasuk), and a little sister who is cynical beyond her years (Krystal Rodriguez). As you might expect in a family of diverse individuals sharing a cramped tenement, there's a good deal of bickering, gamesmanship, and cajoling in Victor's home, but this doesn't help to prepare him for his encounters with Judy (Judy Marte), a young woman known in the neighborhood as much for her sex appeal as for being completely unattainable. Judy's aloof exterior disguises the frightened and defensive reactions of an animal at bay, and at first she is put off by Victor's standard issue come-on. But over the course of a few hot summer weeks, Victor runs up against the limits of his slick, macho persona and learns to get beyond it, thereby winning Judy's trust and keeping his increasingly fragmented family together.

The cast of "Raising Victor Vargas" really hails from the Lower East Side location where the movie is set, and it feels wonderfully as if they are simply revealing significant scenes from their own lives and experiences. Victor Rasuk has the ideal charisma for the title role, made up as it is of both man and boy, true magnetism and unctuous charm. But the real delight is Guzman, who doesn't bear any traces of acting even though this is her first film. (She must be in her 70s, so perhaps writer/director Peter Sollett managed to convince her that she really was Victor's grandma and just let her riff.) Though not exactly likable, she is the film's moral center, a rigid woman whose self absorption matches Victor's own and yet suffices to keep the kids grounded and aware of their responsibility to one another.

The refreshing and worthwhile "moral" of "Raising Victor Vargas" seems to be that although the world offers a lot of pre-determined rules of conduct upon which people can base their lives, it is only when one discards these rules in favor of his or her own instincts and emotions that one can really make fulfilling connections. Victor's cool guy moves (and his brother's and friend's envy of them) are the most obvious example of formulaic behavior in the film, but his grandmother's narrow religious definition of propriety and all of the younger females' feigned antagonism towards boys are other telling examples. Judy's self-enforced celibacy, in fact, illuminates just how much her world is built upon gender-specific roles by presenting her as a victim of them. Because she is tall, thin, and pretty, she is automatically the unwilling recipient of the most flagrant advances of all the wannabe men about town, not one of whom is willing to view her as anything other than an object of conquest and sexual gratification. Since her society is set up so that males are always on the prowl and females can only run away or give in (and soon be discarded), she has been forced to take running away to new heights, becoming unwilling even to speak to a boy for fear of what he might say or do to her. It is only when the characters cast aside the restrictive expectations they have placed on themselves and others (represented by a scene in which Victor liberates a telephone from chains) that they can begin to see each other for what they really are and thus figure out a way to fit into each other's lives.

"Raising Victor Vargas" is like a documentary about everyday people learning how to find meaning in everyday life --- but it's touching, amusing, and truthful enough to make a good story anyway.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.