The characterizations and relationships in this coming-of-age movie appealed to my white, middle-class, middle-age sensibilities. The cultural pressures on Victor to be an über-macho pimp daddy seemed real. His strained relationships with his brother, sister, and grandmother seemed natural. His shock at his grandmother dragging him, with family in tow, to social services and declaring "I'm done with him" for being a bad influence on the family seemed to genuinely shock him to the core. His subsequent humbler and more respectful attitude towards everyone, and Judy in particular, felt reasonable and satisfying. Likewise, the pressures on the young women in the film and how they dealt with them seemed real and sensible.
But all I had as a gut check was my own suburban background, which wasn't a reliable touchstone for this movie. Was this how 21st-century black and Latino urban teens feel and act? I checked some reviews written by people who seemed, by their comments, to understand this arena. The majority seemed to validate this movie's grip on its characters lives, so I'm prepared to embrace this movie for the sweet, earnest, complex, family drama I think it is. The culture clash between Grandma's old-world Dominican Catholicism and her grandkids' more liberal mores, and her efforts to keep a splintered family together as the kids yearn to separate from her add a layer of complexity to the standard awkward teen romance story line.
There's some question about the how believable the neighborhood is, though. LA Times critic Manohla Dargis, who grew up in New York's East Village, has this to say about the setting's credibility:
I'm not really sure what he (Sollet, the director) means by realism, since no East Village summer ever looked that lovely and sounded that quiet, and I've met loads of white Brooklyn kids who are plenty real. The nonprofessionals and gritty backdrop point "Raising Victor Vargas" in the direction of documentary even as everything else -- the deracinated streets, the honeyed light -- point it toward fantasy. (The artfulness of "Raising Victor Vargas" is the most real thing about it.) Sollett has created a Potemkin East Village, but he isn't alone in his yearning for the authentic and his penchant for poeticism. Like David Gordon Green ("All the Real Girls"), Sollett belongs to a wave of artists and writers, who, united by a desire to break free of postmodernism's reflexive irony, are in the grip of sincerity.
The development of the female characters, Judy and Melanie, who are just as important to the movie, get short shrift. Why have the two girls sworn off men so early and so often? Why does Melanie submit to the advances of Victor's friend so easily? What are Judy's family dynamics? None of questions gets explored, much less answered, and there were times when the script could have substituted scenes that dealt with these issues for some of the less compelling scenes in the film and been the richer for it.
As with many low-budget, debut films, the technical aspects of movie-making: cinematography (especially shot-framing, camera steadiness) lighting, etc., are less than impressive. But what Raising Victor Vargas lacks in authenticity of scene or professional polish, it makes up for with situational and emotional veracity.
But all I had as a gut check was my own suburban background, which wasn't a reliable touchstone for this movie. Was this how 21st-century black and Latino urban teens feel and act? I checked some reviews written by people who seemed, by their comments, to understand this arena. The majority seemed to validate this movie's grip on its characters lives, so I'm prepared to embrace this movie for the sweet, earnest, complex, family drama I think it is. The culture clash between Grandma's old-world Dominican Catholicism and her grandkids' more liberal mores, and her efforts to keep a splintered family together as the kids yearn to separate from her add a layer of complexity to the standard awkward teen romance story line.
There's some question about the how believable the neighborhood is, though. LA Times critic Manohla Dargis, who grew up in New York's East Village, has this to say about the setting's credibility:
I'm not really sure what he (Sollet, the director) means by realism, since no East Village summer ever looked that lovely and sounded that quiet, and I've met loads of white Brooklyn kids who are plenty real. The nonprofessionals and gritty backdrop point "Raising Victor Vargas" in the direction of documentary even as everything else -- the deracinated streets, the honeyed light -- point it toward fantasy. (The artfulness of "Raising Victor Vargas" is the most real thing about it.) Sollett has created a Potemkin East Village, but he isn't alone in his yearning for the authentic and his penchant for poeticism. Like David Gordon Green ("All the Real Girls"), Sollett belongs to a wave of artists and writers, who, united by a desire to break free of postmodernism's reflexive irony, are in the grip of sincerity.
The development of the female characters, Judy and Melanie, who are just as important to the movie, get short shrift. Why have the two girls sworn off men so early and so often? Why does Melanie submit to the advances of Victor's friend so easily? What are Judy's family dynamics? None of questions gets explored, much less answered, and there were times when the script could have substituted scenes that dealt with these issues for some of the less compelling scenes in the film and been the richer for it.
As with many low-budget, debut films, the technical aspects of movie-making: cinematography (especially shot-framing, camera steadiness) lighting, etc., are less than impressive. But what Raising Victor Vargas lacks in authenticity of scene or professional polish, it makes up for with situational and emotional veracity.