'Problemista' Is A Comedic Breath Of Fresh Air | SXSW
(L-R) Julio Torres & Tilda Swinton in Problemista. Credit: Courtesy of A24.
Tilda Swinton with pink hair. That was enough for me to take interest in Problemista, the latest from (Oscar Best Picture-producing studio) A24, and the directorial debut of Julio Torres (previously a writer of SNL). The film opens in El Salvador with Alejandro (Torres)’s mom Delores (Catalina Saavedra), as she teaches him the lesson that carries his journey throughout the film; that hard work will result in success. We then pick up with Alejandro, now an aspiring toy designer in New York City, who faces the ups and downs of aiming to land his dream job and finds himself temporarily employed at Freeze Corp, a company for, well, freezing people in hopes of prolonging their lives. One of these clients happens to be Bobby (RZA), an artist who specialized in painting eggs. Yes, variations of eggs on different backgrounds and sizes. This leads Alejandro to encounter Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), Bobby’s wife (ex-wife, wife, widow, the terms and conditions of freezing a person are unclear). While she doesn't have the classic blonde hairdo, Elizabeth is perceived as a “Karen,” and by the bad luck of the universe, Alejandro ends up at her behest needing employment so he can maintain a work visa sponsor and remain in the United States to continue his dream of designing toys, beginning a ticking clock, or hourglass, until Alejandro is out of time.
The most evident thing when watching Problemista is how strong Julio Torres’ creative vision is. It’s great to see new filmmakers with strong and fresh voices do something different, especially in the genre of comedy, where we’ve gotten a lot of formulaic studio comedies over the past few years. While not everything Torres does creatively here is perfect, it’s clear that this is a person who knew what movie they wanted to make and made it, something very commendable. The thing about Problemista is that you really need to love Torres’ style of comedy because if not, it’s going to be hard to love this movie. That said, there are a lot of jokes that are just funny, plain, and simple, most of which are thanks to Tilda Swinton’s performance, the absurdity of which is hard not to laugh at. Swinton outshines basically every other part of the film, not only because of how good she is but because of how much fun she’s clearly having. Swinton and Torres get to play together in this void of creation with few restrictions and get to experiment and push the boundaries of what this movie can be. Does it push it too far at times? Yes. We may have had a slightly stronger outcome if there were more limits on how far we can go and where the story can be taken, but either way, the final movie is fun.
Torres uses his visual and comedic style to discuss the U.S. Immigration System in a way that hasn’t been portrayed on screen before, working effectively with the way this film is structured and executed. Torres knows what he wants to do and does it with the assurance that people watching this movie know what they’re in for, embracing the fun as they go along. At times, the writing is razor sharp, piercing the topics it makes fun of while being easy to understand and don’t require too much afterthought. At other times, we have to really lean into the stylization of the way certain topics are addressed, including, but not limited to, Larry Owens as the physical form of Craigslist, a never-ending staircase to represent the awful system that is immigration, and well, overdraft fees (these aren’t stylized, they just suck).
To be clear, Problemista will not be for everyone, but those who it is for will love it. The film is a strong, stylized, and confident directorial debut from a creative who will surely carve out their spot in a genre that needs new voices.
Problemista screened on March 14 at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival.
