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Buy this DVD with Washington Heights DVD ~ Tomas Milian today!

Total List Price: $39.94 Buy Together Today: $34.98

Amazon.com
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

From The New Yorker
A lovely small-scale comedy about the commonplace mating rituals in a Dominican section of Manhattan. It's summer, and everyone is on the prowl, but the neighborhood is friendly and peaceful; chickens run through the alleys, and small gardens pop up here and there among the projects. The boys act cocky even when they're unsure of themselves, and the girls pretend they don't need boys. Nothing very important happens, but, moment by moment, the movie is alive with the play of gestures and glances, the faces of aggression and withdrawal. Victor Rasuk plays the good-looking local Casanova, perhaps eighteen years old, and Judy Marte is the wary young beauty who gets him to change his style. The writer-director Peter Sollett stays close to the actors, all nonprofessionals, and they greet the camera with a modest but exploratory willingness. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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