Everybody's frontin' in "Raising Victor Vargas," the 90-minute feature debut from director and writer Peter Sollett, filmed on location in the Dominican community of Manhattan's Lower East Side by a cast comprising mostly new faces.
Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk) is caught in the throes of passion with the "Fat Donna" (Donna Maldonado) and suddenly his reputation as a teenage casanova is in jeopardy. So, when he spots cute, dark-eyed Judy Ramirez (Judy Marte) at the public pool, he decides to make a move, hoping for some play and to restore his rep.
But Judy is a tough nut to crack and has formed a de facto alliance with her best friend Melonie (Melonie Diaz). They don't need any of the neighborhood boys and spend most of their days trying to avoid the leers and outright abusive language from them.
When Victor recruits Judy's brother Carlos (Wilfree Vasquez) to make a formal introduction, Judy realizes that saying that Victor is "her man" will provide her with a smokescreen to keep the boys from harassing her. But Victor doesn't catch on and thinks he's the man.
Until he finds out, that is. Then his life -- already troubled thanks to less than peaceful life at home with his caustic sister Vicki (Krystal Rodriguez), timid and eager-to-please little brother Nino (Silvestre Rasuk) and his ready to be disappointed grandmother (Altagracia Guzman) -- seems grimmer than ever.
Everybody appears to be walking through life alone: Victor is focused on cementing his reputation to overcome his insecurities; Judy is battling to remain closed; Melonie is struggling to balance her friendship with Judy and her desire to have a relationship with a boy; Nino is taking a hands-on approach to his emerging sexuality and macho Victor can't even stand to be too close to him. Even grandma appears willing to ditch Victor when she feels he's being a bad influence.
But when times get tough, even Victor and his distant siblings instinctively come together.
The film's real question is, can Victor and Judy shed their protective skins and find love? You'll have to see the film to find out. But it will be worth it. Despite some minor missteps, the inexperienced cast is brilliant and the street scenes are effective without any hackneyed overplaying of the "toughness" or "grittiness."
If the story seems at times a bit earnest, it mostly feels honest and true and in an age of blockbuster films that seek to transport us from reality, it's nice to find a film that finds beauty in everyday life.
"Raising Victor Vargas" opens Fri., May 16 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
