Raising Victor Vargas dares you to overlook it. It's an intimate, small-scale directing debut by Peter Sollett featuring actors you've never heard of. It's about nothing grander than watching some teenagers take a couple of steps toward becoming more mature. It's so simple and unassuming -- if you didn't know to look for it, it would probably pass you by.

That doesn't mean it should be less regarded than other cinematic offerings. After all, deciding to film a story that feels as if it could actually take place in the neighborhood around the corner shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of ambition. The film's strength is in its believable characters -- the funny situations that play out rely on that believability, and the movie's ability to successfully convey it is highly commendable.

In the middle of it all is Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk), a 17-year-old would-be Latino ladykiller, living in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He's like most hormone-raging teens -- his primary concerns are his sex life (or lack thereof) and his rep. Eager to protect that rep after what he feels are embarrassing rumors, he pursues the neighborhood hottie, "Juicy" Judy (Judy Marte). She herself exhibits a few typical youthful attitudes, including a broad, dismissive disdain for boys whom she believes have only one thing on their minds. Meanwhile, at home, Victor has what he would consider a kooky family consisting of his strict grandmother, his annoying half-sister, and a little brother who looks to him for advice about girls.

This movie focuses on the way Victor and Judy gradually accept more adult attitudes. What's invigorating is how subtly the film reveals this -- neither protagonist is required to go through life-altering changes, sudden epiphanies, or acts of melodrama. Both characters start out relatively shallow and mostly selfish, but the events of just a few days are enough to cause them to think a step further outside their usual comfort zones. Victor's persistence is enough to get some desired interaction with Judy; he later gets in trouble with his grandmother, who pulls a stunt in an attempt to teach him a lesson. Meanwhile, Judy converses with her friend and does some thinking of her own, convincing herself that perhaps she's being too hard on Victor. After certain major occurences, Sollett allows us to watch Victor and Judy in quiet moments where we realize the two are processing their thoughts and emotions. Sollett seems to realize how important these formitive moments are in a teenager's life.

Both Victor and Judy are not inwardly unreasonable people, and we can see this from their scenes together and with others. This is such a strong, positive aspect of Raising Victor Vargas -- these teens are not off-putting nor rude and crude, as so many movies like to make teens out to be. They are human; they have concerns, and even if they are a lot of bluster on the surface, the movie gives much respect to the intelligence they have inside. We see their willingness to make things a little better for themselves and those around them, to take on the resposibilities presented before them. Neither Victor nor Judy are wimps -- they believe in their views of their relative invulnerability, but they learn to let their guards down, and that's a big step toward achieving maturity.

Lest someone reading this thinks this is some kind of weighty drama, I should note that the movie is light on its feet and is quite funny most of the time, with sun-tinted cinematography and realistic dialogue amongst the teens (getting non-actors from the streets probably helped a lot here). Even the few semi-big confrontations lead to subtle moments of levity -- the film deftly balances the few moments of drama with its generally amusing tone. Raising Victor Vargas had me smiling from ear-to-ear -- it knocked the cynic within me for a loop with its portrayal of teenagers not as sexually comic idiots but as people whose potential for attaining progressive self-reliability and inner self-confidence must be acknowledged and respected.

(Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and rated "R" for strong language.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.