SUMMERTIME, and the living is anything but easy for 16-year-old Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk), who lives on New York's Lower East Side in a cramped apartment with his young brother Nino (Silvestre Rasuk), sister Vicki (Krystal Rodriguez) and eccentric grandmother (Altagracia Guzman).

Victor fancies himself something of a charmer and a ladies' man, but he has yet to have a serious relationship.

When his sister catches him in the throes of seducing the girl who lives upstairs, 'Fat Donna', and then blabs to the entire neighbourhood, Victor is horrified.

His reputation lies in tatters and all of the other guys at high school poke fun at him mercilessly for sleeping with someone like Donna (Donna Maldonado).

Desperate to regain his status as the local stud, Victor decides to woo the most beautiful and popular girl on the block, 'Juicy Judy Ramirez (Judy Marte).

If he can get her to become his girlfriend, his status at the top of the neighbourhood's social pecking order will be secured.

So Victor persuades Judy's brother Carlos (Wildree Vasquez) to arrange a date with his sister, in exchange for which Victor promises to introduce Carlos to his own sister Vicki.

The plan works well and the relationship between Victor and Judy blossoms, until her true motives for dating him become clear.

Raising Victor Vargas is a beautifully observed rites-of-passage drama, which perfectly captures the awkwardness and nervousness of teenage romance.

Writer-director Peter Sollett, who used his short film Five Feet High and Rising as the basis for this picture, has worked closely with the non-professional actors, using improvisation to tap into their raw energy and emotions.

He is rewarded with some extraordinarily natural and powerful performances, particularly Rasuk and Marte, who seem completely unaware of the cameras, even in their most intimate scenes together.

The dialogue between the characters has the ring of truth about it, from the bickering between Victor and his siblings to the miscommunications between Victor and Judy as they struggle to reveal their true feelings.

Guzman's strict Catholic grandmother is a glorious, sometimes comic creation, watching hawk-like over her brood to prevent them engaging in sinful behaviour.

She has her work cut out.

Showing at Harbour Lights Picture House until Friday.

Rating: 9/10

Until Friday. Box office: 023 8033 5533.