aAs attested by numerous documentaries, numerous journalistic investigations, and countless first-hand experiences, the American immigration system is a purgatory, a deliberately confusing and inhuman hellhole. Getting here, let alone staying here, can be a confusing maze of dead ends and Kafkaesque double binds, an impossible staircase of bureaucracy. The metaphor is easy. This system lends itself to magical realism, as poignantly realized in the new A24 film Problemista. There, immigration is a literal maze of drab cubicles, an hourglass counting down the days until deportation, and bland visa denials causing applicants to physically disappear.
“Problemistas,” the captivating debut film by writer-director-actor Julio Torres, tells the story of the former SNL screenwriter and creator of the HBO show “Los Espokes,” which is one such cold. He is at his best when he harnesses his extraordinary talent and dry eccentricity to the experience of falling. , an illogical behemoth. Like Torres, Alejandro Martinez is originally from El Salvador and is living his creative dreams in the United States. Alejandro lives in Brooklyn (Bushwick, to be exact, feels pretty accurate) while his mother (Catalina Saavedra), an artist who sparked Alejandro’s childhood imagination into fanciful adventures, stays at home. Run it.
Despite such a punitive system, the nimble, star-studded film that premiered nearly a year ago at SXSW (a double Hollywood strike delayed its original fall premiere) Such eyes are often funny. Always wide-eyed and bewildered (and narrated by Isabella Rossellini), Alejandro is expressionless and eager to design toys for Hasbro. There’s a sexy toy that won’t let you go down the stairs, a doll that secretly interlaces its fingers, and a kid in a cabbage patch wearing a hat. He called and texted her about some weird thing about her tongue. It’s unclear how serious this idea is supposed to be, but the movie seems to think it’s more humorous than it actually is, with its absurdist sketch comedy vibe. But the breathless false cheer of post-pandemic corporate life hits home for Bathos. Zoom interviews and recruitment portals where you pour out your hopes and dreams are exhausting, but when you talk into the void and get nothing back, it’s heart-wrenching when you talk to someone as hopeful and serious as Alejandro.
Meanwhile, Alejandro is working at a futuristic cryogenic freezing company, managing the frozen remains of a semi-failed artist named Bobby (RZA) for the yet-to-be-realized resurfacing. He balances this with insightful observations of the mundane and the mundane, yet still manages to hold on. Alejandro, who is enthusiastic but not cut out for the monotony of corporate work, loses his job and is unable to find another sponsor, leaving his visa in limbo. To everyone’s chagrin, his best option is Bobby’s wife Elizabeth (a wonderful Tilda Swinton), a bitter-tongued former art critic determined to reclaim Bobby’s legacy.
Elizabeth is a fragile and fearsome creature, a product of her past, frozen in a cryogenic tube of shoulder pads, scruffy magenta hair, and her own arrogance. Swinton sinks his teeth into the role of Quicksilver, full of contempt and yawning vulnerability. A storm of demands, she is the kind of woman some waiters would aptly describe as a Karen, if she weren’t so obviously pathetic and isolated. Soft-spoken and kind, Alejandro is the perfect assistant, whether it’s helping Elizabeth promote Bobby’s egg painting (lol) or pretending to know how to use Filemaker Pro.
This is the game Alejandro must play to obtain a visa, supplemented with cash from Craigslist (personified by comedian Larry Owens as a greedy, obscene pile). Torres aptly plays Alejandro as a wisp at the mercy of the whims of larger powers. He limps like a video game character, barely putting any weight on the ground, and his doll-like lock of hair always held high. Alejandro is frequently tossed around by life and the system (Rais Nakri, also known as Ramy’s Uncle Naseem, plays a well-meaning but surly immigration lawyer). For a comedy in which Alejandro resorts to ever more dangerous methods while draining his bank account and hourglass, Problemista is just as stressful.
As frustratingly passive as Alejandro is, Torres is charming and endearing, and Swinton’s deft adjustment makes Elizabeth completely unbearable. There’s a lesson in her ability to say “no” or, more accurately, “I don’t have any options.” Alejandro’s options may seem limited, but the film’s imagination is rich and sometimes fails. Over the course of its snappy 98-minute running time, it’s hard to see how the different pieces fit together. Especially since The Problemator leans towards the futuristic parts (cryogenic stuff, etc.), which never really come to fruition, creating a bumpy conclusion. But it’s fun to watch Torres take on the challenge, and the drama cleverly created as she tries to read emails on a cracked cell phone screen and burn her CD-ROM in time. It’s fun to feel. Problemista’s primary mode is playful, and its comic sensibilities are curious and twisted, enough to make this film, an uneven but promising debut, enjoyable throughout.
