A24’s Problemista review: a surreal fairy tale about finding your people

Every of comic Julio Torres’ initiatives has spoken to his potential to inform tales which might be formed by each his distinct creativeness and a deep understanding of the hyperspecific idiosyncrasies that make odd folks attention-grabbing. In SNL sketches like “Wells For Boys,” and his short-lived HBO sequence Los Espookys, Torres created home windows into absurdist worlds meant to look like locations you would possibly solely go to in your desires. However with A24’s Problemista — which he wrote, directed, and stars in — Torres makes use of his artistic powers to color an image whose magnificence is rooted in how actual and emotionally trustworthy it feels.

Impressed by Torres’ personal expertise immigrating to the US, Problemista tells the story of Alejandro, an aspiring toymaker from El Salvador who travels to America in hopes of fulfilling his desires of working for Hasbro. As the one little one born to artist Dolores (Catalina Saavedra), Alejandro grows up experiencing their small pocket of the world as a magical, vibrant place that nourishes his distinctive creativeness. When a younger Alejandro (Logan J. Alarcon-Poucel) needs for a life-size, castle-like playhouse the place he can ponder his emotions, Dolores makes use of her skills to make his dream actual — not simply because she will be able to but in addition as a result of she needs him to know that he, too, is able to remodeling concepts into actuality. 

Dolores additionally needs Alejandro to know that she’ll all the time love him and help his selections, which her desires inform her will in the future lead him to nice issues. However when the time lastly comes for Alejandro to set out on his personal, Dolores can not assist however really feel like she’s sending him off right into a world that isn’t adequate for a soul as delicate as his.

By way of each Katie Byron’s impeccably offbeat manufacturing design and voiceover narration from Isabella Rossellini, Problemista clues you into how, greater than being a easy chronicle of Alejandro’s journey to America, it’s actually a form of fairy story a couple of profoundly delicate and sheltered man discovering what it means to chase one’s passions.

Attending to New York Metropolis and discovering a spot to remain are necessary steps on Alejandro’s path to Hasbro, the place he hopes his concepts for social-media-obsessed Cabbage Patch Children and psychologically manipulative Barbies would possibly land him an entry-level gig. Hopes don’t precisely pay the payments, although. And as an immigrant, Alejandro’s potential to remain within the US is contingent upon discovering a job prepared to sponsor him earlier than his time runs out. It’s necessity greater than anything that results in Alejandro working at a cryogenics startup specializing in deep-freezing artists like Bobby (RZA) who need to get up centuries into the longer term. However it appears to be destiny that introduces Alejandro to Bobby’s ferociously belligerent artwork critic spouse Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton) the exact same afternoon he’s fired.

Whereas the whimsical ambiance of playfulness that Problemista leads with by no means actually fades away, it turns into rather more unhinged as soon as Elizabeth enters the image with a proposal for Alejandro to change into her latest in a seemingly lengthy line of overworked assistants. In Elizabeth — a residing actuality distortion discipline whose fuse is as quick as her outfits are loud — Alejando can see a girl in mourning who in the end needs to be seen and heard greater than she truly needs to battle. However shouting is Elizabeth’s default mode, and whereas most individuals expertise her rageful outbursts as atypical mood tantrums, Alejandro visualizes them as a sequence of battles between a bloodthirsty monster and her helpless victims.

Although Problemista’s flights of fancy carry a levity to the movie, their energy lies in how powerfully they illustrate the extra advanced, severe concepts Torres is exploring along with his script, just like the methods wherein the US’s visa system makes it terribly troublesome for immigrants to construct new lives and thrive within the nation. Coping with Elizabeth and her quest to trace down a sequence of Bobby’s egg-focused work is its personal form of hell that might make anybody need to dissociate. However it pales compared to the anxiousness Alejandro lives with figuring out that he’s simply days away from being deported.

Even with sympathetic case employees like Khalil (Laith Nakli) rooting for him, with out cash, there’s no method for Alejandro to flee from the immigration system’s endless charges or the overdraft costs that plague his checking account. And the extra time Alejandro spends making an attempt to navigate the unfairly designed maze of near-poverty, the extra he finds himself turning to the embodiment of Craigslist (Larry Owen) to seek out further low-paying facet hustles.

Problemista quietly weaves a lot of its narrative threads collectively in intelligent methods — Elizabeth is the cave-dwelling monster who haunts Dolores’ desires, for instance, and the critic’s energy to will issues into existence (by bullying folks) reminds Alejandro of his mom’s knack for translating tough sketches into three-dimensional artworks. 

However the movie typically feels extra like an ensemble of complementary tales fairly than a singular narrative (which isn’t essentially a knock towards) due to how a lot time the movie spends with facet characters, pulling the main focus away from Alejandro. Collectively, Swinton and Torres are a storm of pleasant eccentricities that belie their characters’ shared but distinct emotional vulnerabilities. As Alejandro and Elizabeth develop nearer, Problemista’s forays into the absurd change into much more intense and fantastical to emphasise how they symbolize the reality of what one thing is. 

These truths are sometimes so terrifying that folks don’t need to see them. However Problemista emphasizes how therapeutic it may be to confront them by means of artwork and by making an attempt to construct significant connections with others even when the duty appears unattainable.

Problemista additionally stars Greta Lee, Spike Einbinder, Kelly McCormack, Megan Stalter, Charlene Incarnate, Martine Gutierrez, and Carlos E. Navedo. The movie hits theaters nationwide on March twenty second.