"Raising Victor Vargas" is one of the most deliciously authentic films I've ever seen. It's set in the Lower East Side of
Manhattan during a hot summer, and you can practical smell, taste and feel it: The kids are out of school, the families live in small apartments in huge buildings, the streets are crowded. The film was shot in real locations, and real people fill the scenes. Peter Sollett, the writer and director, based this on his 1999 short film "Five Feet High and Rising," which in turn was loosely based on his own upbringing -- except that Sollett was raised in a Jewish/Italian neighborhood of Brooklyn, not an Hispanic section of Manhattan. The Sundance Screenwriters Lab helped him assemble the script, and he allowed his actors -- most of whom hail from the very neighborhoods he's writing about -- to improvise and grow into their roles. The result is an utterly charming slice-of-life picture that is as joyful and real as anything you'll see any time soon. It is full of natural humor, the stuff of everyday life, without a single set-up or punch line.
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