RIOTUS

I’m clueless about Julio Torres, the screenwriter and director of the new A24 film Problemista. From the trailer I saw last year back when it was supposed to come out in 2023, it just seemed like a nice little opposite buddy movie with Tilda Swinton in it, so I know I was bout it bout it on seeing it. Then I sat down, and I experienced a wild piece of cinema. Julio plays Alejandro, a young man raised by an artist mother who wanted to protect him from the world and gave him everything he could have possibly wanted through her own imagination and will. Alejandro left his mother to pursue his dream of becoming a famous toy designer at Hasbro in New York City. He has more peculiar ideas for toys, and as he constantly applies for a job there, he works at a cryogenic freezing business to have a work visa to stay in the United States. After a chance encounter at this job, he meets Elizabeth (Swinton), a client’s wife, and ends up on this grand adventure to help put on a solo art show of her husband’s artwork.

Now, I know that reads like a completely normal and maybe a pretty boring thing, but this whole film is told like a picture book, and at times, it felt like I was watching an episode of Pee Wee’s Playhouse. It’s so damn surreal as we see this pure lead protagonist that is overcoming the harsh world he’s trying to maneuver through to achieve his dream. Yet it’s his necessary partnership with Elizabeth, a woman that at first glance feels like the worst “Karen” that could ever exist. Over time, that opens up layers like that of a Miyazaki film antagonist. What I mean is that in the film, she’s treated like a monster by Alejandro and by the world, not like a horror movie monster but like a person who can explode at any moment. Her emotions and methodology of moving through the world and society. Swinton plays this character as someone you’ll dislike but also understand. With each and every hardship Alejandro goes through, the way she goes about things makes more and more sense in the world of the film. Her look with these long dresses and messy dyed hair brings about a Maleficent-like witch quality to her outbursts at others and Alejandro.

Torres’ Alejandro seems naïve but is far from it; his hopefulness and optimism works well against Elizabeth. It feels generational, while he has more earnestness to balance her hardness to the world and how she’s been treated and treated them back. His arc through the NYC we see in the film is at times tense and overwhelming but welcoming too. The people he meets and deals with feel familiar to those who have experienced NYC in the sense of living there. The little fantastical elements fit as well. I want to note that RZA is in this as a painter, and he is delightful as such a sincere artist about his work but also completely annoyingly flighty. RZA’s Bobby is Elizabeth’s husband, and you get how they ended up together. Greta Lee has a small role as Dalia, which has an interesting little segment in the film that helps establish the friendship between Alejandro and Elizabeth. While the film is intelligent, funny, and light, the way in which it deals with the immigrant experience in this country and how completely broken it is. While the film has a happy ending, this film shows just how utterly mystifying trying to become a citizen and resident here is. It puts it at the top of your mind, and with everything in the news, you can’t help but worry about Alejandro. Problemista was a surprising modern fairytale of a buddy comedy to me, and I hope many others take the time to see this.

Score: B+