minimal spoilers...

There's just something about a good coming-of-age film we can all relate to...Whether it's the crazy family or the first love, there's just something about these films, that when one is done with some class, we can reach out and touch the characters like we know them. This is pretty neat, because rather than playing on our emotions or drawing on our sympathy for a character, they can draw on our empathy, because we feel what the character is feeling - we know because we've been there.

Raising Victor Vargas is like that. Though my roots are more European and suburban than Victor's, these feelings transcend nationalities and socio-economic levels. We were all young once (even if we don't remember it), and there's a sort of shared consciousness when it comes to our experiences growing up.

Now, I promise that when I sat down to write this review, I wasn't planning to be overly sentimental or discuss sociological/psychological implications of the film, but there you go...

Raising Victor Vargas is about a young man attempting to grow up surrounded and suffocated by his crazy, overbearing grandmother, his annoying little sister, and his little brother that just tends to get in the way. To his grandmother he's a bad influence, to his sister he's a major source of irritation, and to his brother he's a role model. On top of that, he's in love with Judy, and she sees him more as a pest than a boyfriend.

This is one of those under-the-radar films that you wish had come to your theater instead of The Real Cancun. At the theaters it barely made $2M, partly because it didn't have the huge studio marketing blitz behind it, partly because it never screened at more than 69 theaters at one time (that same week, The Real Cancun was screening at well over 2,000 theaters).*

I'm sure many of us didn't have the exact same experiences as Victor. However, the character is written, and is played, so well, that it's obvious many of us have had the exact same feelings as he has, and in that way, have had the same experiences. Everything in the movie serves to add to the reality of the characters and their situations. In fact, because they are so relatable, Raising Victor Vargas is probably one of the funniest non-comedies I've ever seen. His interactions with his family and friends are nothing short of hilarious.

I have to say I enjoyed this little-known film a lot more than I've enjoyed many of the huge blockbusters I've had the misfortune to see in the last few months.

			See it if you enjoy good movies that might not make it to your local Blockbuster, or if you're nostalgic for the time when you met your first love. Don't see it if you can't watch a movie without at least one explosion, or if you don't have a soft spot in your heart for the days when you were young.

*Box Office takes and theater counts based on Box Office Mojo numbers, 9/8/03.

© 2003 Jim Manchester

Originally posted to Reel People, 9/8/03