The Fantastical, Fantastic Problemista Sees Julio Torres’ Inventive, Hilarious Debut
Anyone familiar with Saturday Night Live writer and Los Espookys co-creator Julio Torres’ idiosyncratic, fanciful sense of humor won’t be surprised to learn that his feature film debut, Problemista, is a delightfully erratic and wild ride.
Problemista follows Alejandro (Torres), a young man who moves from El Salvador to Bushwick in the hopes of realizing his dreams as a toy maker. Getting the sponsorship he needs to remain in the United States proves to be a headache of epic proportions, but he sees a potential light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton): An eccentric, volatile and hostile art critic who spends her days picking fights with waiters and Apple Support technicians. Elizabeth solicits Alejandro to help get her cryogenically frozen husband Bobby’s (RZA) paintings into an art show, vowing to sponsor the young man should everything go to plan.
But, we all know that everything tends not to go as planned in these sorts of situations. Getting sponsored turns out to be a wholly Kafkaesque experience for Alejandro—an experience replete with a healthy dosage of ludicrousness that Torres highlights with magnificent maze-like sets that recall the wacky, dystopian office spaces of Jacques Tati’s Playtime.
Torres remains committed to this level of grandiose magical realism throughout Problemista. When Alejandro and Elizabeth get into squabbles, for example, Torres imagines that the former is a knight and the latter a multi-headed monster, and they are duking it out with medieval swords. When Alejandro descends down the Craigslist rabbithole in search of side gigs, he is confronted by an all-knowing, mischievous figure (Larry Owens) who reads him job listings like they are materializing in a crystal ball.
These spectacular sets are a staggering showcase of Torres’ command over his unique aesthetic sensibilities and provide shrewd commentary on immigration and classism in a wholly inventive way. When identical rooms continue to emerge in Alejandro’s quest for sponsorship, for example, it is a picture that encapsulates the mundanity, claustrophobia and senselessness of this process in a way that words often fail to. And what better way to depict a Karen than as a red-eyed demon, literally fuming over a 20-plus-dollar goat cheese salad? In his willingness to experiment with the fantastical, Torres actually conveys the absurdity one often experiences as an immigrant living in the United States.