Rating: 
Summary: I Love Love this movie!!
Review: Maybe because this movie has lots of similarities to my own family, I love it so much. My grandma looks and acts exactlly lick Victor's. I guess you have to growup humble to really appreciate this movie. This is truly a diamond in the rough and by far the best independent film I have ever seen and probably will see in my life!!!
Rating:
Summary: A "Coming-of-Age" story Squared
Review: No gangs, no drive-by shootings, no distracting top 20 music, and no gratuitous hardcore sex scenes. And believe it or not this takes place in the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhatten. This movie takes otherwise stereotypical characters and allows them to evolve. Victor realizes that in order to get what he wants, he must grow and mature and understand what becoming a man is really all about. As a result, his "wants" are redefined. Judy must relax her cast-iron defenses if she is ever to truly love anybody and extract joy from the experience. A superb job by PROFESSIONAL actors.
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Summary: One of the most warmly tender love stories on film!
Review: RAISING VICTOR VARGAS is a minor miracle. Peter Sollett has gathered an extraordinary cast of non-professional (in category name only!) actors, often using their own first names, and has given us a simple story of coming of age in a setting that is the antithesis of our previous views of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The usual films made in or about this area are dark, crime-cancered, grafitti-ized, unintelligible gang dramas. Rarely has any director had the courage to look at the "survivors" of poverty in such a simple and loving way. Victor Vargas (an inordinately talented Victor Rasuk), one of three siblings left in the care of their grandma (played with infinite wisdom and beauty by Altagracia Guzman)is of the age where he is acting the role of the macho ladies' man and is surrounded by friends who let is be known that he is getting his satisfaction from a fat loose girl they all tease. Victor reacts and pledges to conquer Judy ( a beautiful Judy Marte), a girl who is wise to the hormonal drives of the young men she confronts in her seedy neighborhood. Director Sollett follows the emotional maturation of these two as they slowly and with growing wisdom approach a relationship. Along this path is the hilarious ranting of Grandma who fears her family is falling into the depths of sin.The setting, though on location and anything but beautiful, is photographed as though it were as meaningful as a Romeo/Juliet Italy. Oddly, the music in the background is Bach instead of Hip Hop - a hint of the sensitivity in store for you as you discover how fine simple storytelling on film can be in the hands of committed actors and crew. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Real
Review: Rasing is a real story about teen in Brooklyn. It's as real as "kids", but without the sex and violence. A great indie film.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Film In a While
Review: Sometimes a movie comes around that can be funny, touching, sad and uplifting without being a mawkish display of heart string tugging. My best friend and I just sat through it and we would both watch it again. It is at times hilarious and the relationship between Judy and Victor is realistic and heartfelt. I didn't even feel like I was watching a movie- I felt like I was peering in on someone's life. It wasn't a music video exaggeration of hispanic life in New York, it was a realistic look at everyday life. I loved it, and I would watch it again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: "Raising Victor Vargas" is too real to judge as a movie...
Review: Sometimes you come across a piece of filmmaking that is SO REAL and true-to-life, it seems as though it were "reality television" instead of a "written for the screen" type of work. This movie is SO pure and lucid in its adaptation of hispanic family life, it's scary. The love and closeness among siblings that border upon obsession, the fanatical religious matriach who is the heart and soul of the family, the machismo of the developing hispanic male...just everything...every little nuance is very carefully articulated and represented in such refreshing simplicity that it is a pure joy to watch and is as famaliar as apple pie or in this case, "pernil". Loved this movie and would recommend it highly to anyone who appreciates independent filmmaking at its best...when it just "IS" and not necessarily trying to be a commentary on life.
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Summary: palpable adolescent angst
Review: sweet, funny true to life movie. didn't change my life or rock my world, but really impressive in its ability to capture the awkwardness of friendship, family, young love, hormones. really enjoyed it!
Rating:
Summary: Realistic first love
Review: The best indie film of 2003, it's a little bit of everything: coming-of-age, romance, comedy, social commentary, and above all, just plain wonderful. The cast of non-professional actors is superb; their very spontaneity is what endears them to viewers, and it seems most of them even go by their own names. Gramma, from the DR, is raising her 3 grandkids in NY's Lower East side, and she's facing the very devil of a job when all of their hormones start raging at the same time. The central story concerns the blossoming and completely innocent love between Victor and Judy, but there are several side stories: Judy's best friend and her new boyfriend, Victor's plump little sister who's got a lisping kid (Judy's little pre-adolescent brother) madly in love with her, Victor's younger brother who doesn't have a girlfriend - yet - but he's dreaming big-time. And most of all, the beleaguered and excellently portrayed grandmother, Sra. Guzman, who just wants them all to eat dinner together, go to church several times a week, and be a happy family.
Wonderful, feel-good movie with a much sweeter and deeper message than most.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulling for Victor
Review: The gangly, greasy and awkward life of teens in puberty and the many hassles, crisis and dramas are lovingly presented in Raising Victor Vargas. Love, in a variety of forms is constantly apparent and comes through by way of the raw talent of the many actors making their film debut. Not to worry, sweet Victor will turn out all right with a heart as big as his.
Michael Duranko
www.bootism.com
Rating:
Summary: Young innocent romance in idealized urban setting
Review: This 2003 independent film is about young love. It was written and directed by 26-year old Peter Sollett, and has all the earmarks of a fresh young filmmaker. The story is simple. Victor Vargas, played by Victor Rasuk, is a teenage boy who is looking for love. He lives with his grandmother, played by Altagracia Guzman, and his younger brother and sister in a poor, but idealized neighborhood in New York City. His grandmother, who had emigrated from the Dominican Republic years before, clearly loves her grandchildren and does her best to keep the family together. However, she's a little too quick to consider them depraved simply because Victor is romancing a girl and because his younger brother, played by Silvestre Rusuk, is experimenting with is own sexuality behind closed bathroom doors. In an inspired bit of casting, these two real-life brothers look so much alike that it gives the feel of a real family. Victor meets the girl of his dreams, Judy Marte, and they begin a romance. They are both inexperienced and it takes a while for their first kiss. There are a few twists and turns to the plot, and some obstacles which get in the way, but basically it is just a sweet love story. One of the most interesting things about the story though is that there are no guns, drugs or violent acts. They might be living in a neighborhood known for these things but yet they are all remarkably innocent. I enjoyed the film and thought it was well done. But frankly, it was a little too simple for my personal tastes. It seemed to me like amateurs doing their best in a first film. Which, of course, is exactly what it is. I must give the film an "A" for effort though. And I look forward to watching the growth of this filmmaker.
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