IN: Review: The film belongs to Inventor - Underdog genre. Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern and Chris Cooper bring a little acting verve to story with several standard elements. Well filmed, well edited, with plenty of well acted secondary roles.

Some have declared this movie to be classic American hokey. It is that and more. I agree with those who say "The movie celebrates the thrill of youthful inspiration."

The film is a pleasant reminder that achievement may be born of ordinary roots.

What is this review like?
OUT: positive

IN: Review: As someone who's never been into sports, it seems like it would be hard for me to get into the football (or as we Americans inexplicably call it, soccer)-themed "Bend It Like Beckham". But I gotta say, this was one cool movie! Anglo-Indian Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) and her WASP friend Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley) love to play football (yes, I'm going to say it the British - and international - way) and just adore football player David Beckham. But Jesminder's traditional Sikh parents don't approve (her mother offers a really whacked-out description of football early in the movie). Okay, so maybe it was sort of a cliche in that sense, but you gotta love this movie! And if like me, you go to this movie not knowing the definition of "bend" in football...don't worry, the movie explains it (I'd also never heard of David Beckham prior to this movie). And we all know that Keira Knightley hit it big: a few months after "BILB" came out in the States, she starred in the equally cool "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".
What is this review like?
OUT: positive

IN: Review: Of life in (some) colleges. Of course there were artistic licenses taken, but some of what you saw in this film go on in some colleges.

I went to colleges in Southern California where the races pretty much hang around with their own. It's funny because these are schools that want racial unity, equality etc. and I can honestly say, that it's there. But the thing is when class lets out, or when they're just hanging out waiting for class, they (students) seem to just hang around with people of their own race or ethnicity. Is that bad? Not really. Everyone needs a feeling of belonging. But like the school paper of one of the schools I attended once wrote about that, "we should all try to hang around with students of other ethnicities and try to know them." Otherwise you're creating your own segregation.

Racism certainly existed in one of those schools I attended. One time someone put leaflets around campus talking about the glories of the Aryan Race and had the symbols of some of those racist organizations. Fortunately, nothing happened like the incident in the movie where the young Caucasian man went off and started shooting at a multiculturalism gathering.

I can only hope and pray that nothing like that ever will happen.

So is "Higher Learning" overly dramatic? Exaggerated? Maybe. Is it way "off mark?" It depends on where you went to or go to school. The race thing where the ethnicities just hang around with their own DOES happen. Minus the Hollywood exaggerations, the race thing hit pretty close to home for me.
What is this review like?
OUT: positive

IN: Review: Wow! I loved this movie and LOVE Judy Marte!! This girl isn't just an awesome pretty face, she's funny and really really talented!! She made me laugh many times just by being very naturally rough with Victor who was desperately hitting on her! We'll be seeing her a lot in the next coming years... and probably also from director Peter Sollett and co-star Victor Rasuk!

Raising Victor Vargas is one of the best film I saw in a long time! Very refreshing! It's true, nice, funny, well filmed, it got it all : good story, good actors, good film direction!

If you like simple, slow paced, real life, urban movies, like maybe Jersey Girl from Kevin Smith, you'll love Victor Vargas! It's better!
What is this review like?
OUT:
positive