Raising a Sensitive Man.(Movie Review)

When victor Vargas catches his sister, Vicky, gossiping on the phone about his affair with the unpopular "Fat Donna," he tosses the phone-- an old rotary-dial model--out the window. It doesn't deter Vicky, who continues maligning her older brother on a cell phone. But it infuriates their grandmother and guardian, who finds the shattered phone on the ground outside. After taping it back together, she padlocks it so Victor, Vicky and their little brother, Nino, cannot use it without her permission. For the restless Latino teenagers in "Raising Victor Vargas," that creates a temporary obstacle to making connections, but by no means a final one.

To restore his reputation in their neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, 16-year-old Victor (the appealing Victor Rasuk) sets out to woo "Juicy Judy" Ramirez (Judy Marte). At first she coldly rebuffs his macho advances. But after Victor enlists Judy's brother, Carlos, to plead his case (in exchange for introducing him to Vicky), she gradually softens up. Like all the young characters in this charming, understated film, Judy is hungry for emotional contact. Beneath the swagger, she is vulnerable and immature; stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh characters still decorate her dresser.

But Victor's most complicated relationship is with his testy, overburdened grandmother (Altagracia Guzman), who considers him a good- for-nothing playboy like his grandfather. She dotes on the sweet- natured Nino (Silvestre Rasuk, Victor's real-life, look-alike brother), who plays Bach concertos on the piano and allows her to wash his hair in the tub. So when she discovers Nino doing "terrible things" to himself (i.e., ...