Of the many films that fell victim to the wave of pushbacks incurred by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, few were as perplexing as Julio Torres’s debut film “Problemista.” Not only was distributor A24 scooping up interim agreements left and right from the union to keep filming and promoting their works, but this film was very clearly well-embedded within the spirit of indie filmmaking, something that was incredibly apparent since before the film premiered over a year before it finally got its wide release now. Sure enough—in keeping with that “artists first” spirit that made A24 such an ally of the guild—”Problemista” is undoubtedly the product of an ambitious upstart’s vision when he’s given the keys to the pastel-tinted castle.
Alejandro (Torres, in a quadruple-threat turn as writer/producer/director/star) emigrated from El Salvador to New York with one ambition in mind: to become the world’s most renowned toy designer. In waiting for a seemingly hopeless application to Hasbro’s internship program to go through, Alejandro loses his current job caring for a cryogenically frozen artist (RZA, because why not?), leaving him with just 30 days to find a new sponsor before the US government deports him.
Fortunately(?) for him, this sacking from the ever-creatively named FreezeCorp puts him in the good graces of the artist’s wife, Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), a walking whirlwind of anxious authority who takes him on as her assistant with the promise that she will sponsor his residence in the country if he helps her put on a successful gallery show for her husband’s art.
That Torres was even able to assemble such an ambitious undertaking as “Problemista” in his multifaceted creative capacity is impressive enough before you even account for the film’s erratic tonal juggling act. Lampooning the absurdity of the American immigration system and the art world, Torres approaches his material with all the fervor of a sugar-addicted child given the keys to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory; his own muted performance anchors the film as the creative visualizations of every obstacle in Alejandro’s path take on a veritable playful artifice that can only really be described along the lines of “Cardboard Kafka.”
It’s an angle truly unapologetic in its flagrant eagerness to keep your annoyance on ten at all times, so much so that it would likely take a truly seasoned hand to guide this material to its highest peak. Torres, for his part, handles this tone with far greater dexterity than a debuting filmmaker probably has any right to, but the film’s repetitive nature makes that kitschy taste go down somewhat roughly at times.
Swinton’s performance is a perfect example of where too much of a good thing runs the risk of imploding the entire project, for her turn as Elizabeth hits every mark Torres clearly intends. She’s at once driven and aloof, venomous and caring, energizing and exhaustive. It’s a balance that Swinton achieves marvelously—continuing to prove that she’s arguably the greatest performer working in film today—but the longer “Problemista” subjects us to her genius, the more Torres strains to justify our subjugation to it.
The stylistic embodiments of Alejandro’s hurdles are truly faultless in their creativity—special mentions deserve to be given to the personification of Craigslist, the inescapable maze, and the dragon-slaying garb reminiscent of your average high school play—but the execution of these ideas for the purposes of developing his character eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns. For all the scattered, undeniable laughs “Problemista” may get out of you, it becomes just as undeniable when you eventually find yourself checking your watch every five minutes.
Then again, it’s very clearly Torres’s intention to make you feel as if a guitar string is constantly tightening two inches from your ear, and more to the point, this grating sensation serves the end goal of the material rather well. There does, however, come a time when the point is made, and you may find yourself wondering whether every saucy indie quirk that didn’t land with you was all that necessary after all.
With “Problemista,” the spirit of borderline-slapdash independent filmmaking is alive and well, thanks to Julio Torres’s earnest explorations of the hardships that face the American migrant just looking to chase that elusive dream. His distillation of constant unease may not achieve the most optimal outcome thanks to its jarring, occasionally inconsistent delivery, but the message comes across with enough laughs and sincerity to get across its most poignant arguments: the American immigration system is a prison, and Tilda Swinton is a godsend amongst us, mere mortals. Not the first film to make either of those points, but at least it’s nice to be reassured.
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