Hey folks, Harry here with a review of what really sounds like a remarkable film. Nothing I love more than to hear that we have another potentially great director and movie on the horizon that was not there yesterday according to my radar. Make this the official first blip... ok? Read on...
Harry,
Last night I attended a special screening of a film called Raising Victor Vargas for the students of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, which is the alma mater of a guy named Tim Orr. Why is that important? Because Tim Orr was the amazing cinematographer of David Gordon Green's George Washington, and he also shot Raising Victor Vargas. The movie is slated to be released (I'd assume in a limited fashion) in January, and it is based on the student film Five Feet High and Rising, which won the director, Peter Sollet, a Student Films Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Festival. So are you interested? Good, because here's what I thought, first in brief, followed by a more in-depth review:
Raising Victor Vargas is a stunning film, better than anything I've seen from Hollywood this year. It concerns the romantic, sexual, and familial exploits of its title character, a Hispanic teenager growing up in New York City. In a way that boggles the mind, it combines the raw reality of Kids with the warmth and ethnic values of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a description that doesn't even begin to do the film justice. Sollet uses humor to draw the audience closer to the characters, then spins around and deals out serious drama that left me spellbound. I hadn't heard of this film before I saw it, and I expect that many of you haven't either, but if you're in the mood to take a risk on a low-budget film with no stars, this one won't disappoint.
REVIEW
Victor Vargas prowls the streets of New York in his dirty white tank top, looking for girls, trying to improve his reputation, and creating an idea for himself of what it means to be a man. He's been brought up in a tiny, rundown apartment shared with a younger brother who idolizes him, and an antagonistic sister he can never seem to have a civil conversation with (when showing someone a picture of her as a young child, Victor explains, "This is my sister. But she's fat now."). He first sees Judy, the most beautiful girl in the neighborhood, sitting by a pool with a friend. He approaches her, turning on his macho charm, and she blows him off, but there's an immediate sense that this won't be the end for them, and eventually, Victor starts to wear down her defenses.
The idea that holds the entire film together is that these kids are a generation growing up without any male role models. Victor brags about his grandfather having had four or five wives, while his father is nowhere to be found, and his siblings were both sired by different men. Victor's answer to the question of what it means to be a man is strutting around half-naked, licking his lips and hunting for girls like a predator for prey. His grandmother has already written him off as a lost cause, but when his influence starts to rub off on the younger children, she tries to put a stop to his behavior, which in turn causes Victor to take a long look at why he is the way he is.
There was a script for Raising Victor Vargas, but its cast of amateur actors never saw it. Sollet instead guided them through a rehearsal process that allowed them to build their characters organically from their own experiences. He gave them an objective for each scene, and then allowed them to improvise the dialogue. This approach gives the movie a freshness that's stunning, as you get the impression you're watching real people, even while Sollet never allows the film to get too far off course. Across the board, every performance in this film is excellent, but the one of particular note is that of Altagracia Guzman, who plays the grandmother, and who has never acted in a movie before this in her life. Her performance is entirely barren of the hallmarks of craft, and instead unfolds with a natural ease that is astonishing.
Director of Photography Tim Orr's approach to the lighting has the familiar orange glow of his work on George Washington, but while that film was shot with slow, languorous camera work, Vargas is done in the documentary style that is the hallmark of many independent films. Having seen it so many times before, I have my doubts about this style, but what makes it work this time around is the contrast between the gritty camera movements, and the slightly romanticized lighting, all of which serves to create the impression of a world in which the characters are capable of acts of beauty, but may not be aware of their own potential. The movie was shot in Super 16, but apart from a bit more grain, it's almost impossible to distinguish from 35.
My grasp of grammar, combined with my praise for the film, may seem to mark this review as a studio plant, but I assure you it's not (I'm not even sure what studio is releasing it). I'm am merely a film student and a fan of good cinema, and if I can do anything to help this film get seen by a wider audiences, I'm happy to do so. For me it ranks among the top three teen romances ever made, alongside Say Anything, and the Australian film Flirting.
If you post this, please keep me anonymous. Although I hate pseudonyms, you can call me Victor Vargas this time around.
Thanks!
