Review: Problemista (2023)

Problemista (2023)
Written, directed by, and starring Julio Torres

All of have worked, at one time of another — or will — for a monster. Not a corporation or some other another institution; not capitalism or socialism; but a human being who is so self-centered that they can only see their own goals, so boundary-free that they express themselves in abusive words and tone, so loud and forceful that every moment you feel like either fleeing or simply melting in the face of their fiery, dragon-like breath.

To survive, we tell ourselves “They mean well” or “They’re just strong personalities” or “They’re managing the project I want to work on” or “The pay and benefits are worth it” or even “The monster is also a genius, so what’s a little singed ego on my part if I get to work so close to the sun?” Or, worst of all: “I have no choice but to take their crap because I need this job to survive.”

These are the dynamics between Alejandro (auteur Julio Torres, who wrote, directed, produced, and stars) and Elizabeth, played at a high pitch by Tilda Swinton. Swinton is a reliably strange presence who uses her tall, narrow profile to inhabit witches, dominatrices, and other weird authority figures. Here she employs the strategies of an imperious but desperate person who verbally hacks her way through every defense mounted against her. Her performance is simultaneously so jittery and so natural that she might be risking being remembered for and typecast as this character — if she weren’t visible in so many other productions. These include Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” and “The French Dispatch” as well as Marvel movies, thrillers (“The Killer,” “Uncut Gems”), action movies (“Snowpiercer”), fantasy (Narnia movies) and more.

Swinton plays the widow of an artist — or rather, the still-living spouse of a dying artist who has had himself frozen in anticipation of a future cure. She needs to sell her husband’s paintings to continue paying for the maintenance of his frozen body. One difficulty is that his paintings have never been popular. Another is that she is too disorganized to address the task.

Coming to her assistance is Alejandro, a Salvadorean immigrant who loses his job in the very cryogenics company where Elizabeth’s spouse is on ice, and consequently is faced with the loss of his visa unless he finds another sponsor in 30 days. To do this, he must hire an immigration attorney for $6000, yet is not permitted to be employed. This leads him to the Gigs section of Craigslist, a realm entertainingly depicted in the film as a genie’s cave with Craigslist itself embodied in the form of a louche if magical being (Larry Owens).

In addition to these gigs — which include trying to sell hair salon packages, untangling a necklace, and sex work — he assists Elizabeth with her goal of getting a gallery to show her husband’s paintings. He does this entirely on spec, chasing the promise that Elizabeth will, after they mount a successful exhibition and sell all the paintings, hire and sponsor him.

Alejandro’s goal is not merely to remain in the country; doing so is simply instrumental to attaining his real goal: an internship at Hasbro, where he wants to be a toy designer.1 That’s his dream.

And to pursue it, he will put up with so much shit from her. Fortunately, she is not solely a toxic person; she has occasional moments of softness, and Alejandro manages from time to time to get her to calm down with reckless promises that he will fix up her database and just generally sort everything that is preventing her from fulfilling her promise to her husband.

In addition to the surreal Craigslist scenes, the script provides other fanciful moments, such as a sequence featuring a chutes-and-ladders-like arrangement of interlocking office cubicles that Alejandro must navigate. At other times, sheer exaggeration is all that’s necessary to maintain an appropriate farcical tone, such as when a claque of visitors practically take over the apartment that Alejandro shares with an extravagantly talentless artist (Greta Titelman, who appeared in Torres’ TV series “Los Espookys”).

Among the appealing supporting cast are the performer “RZA” as Elizabeth’s painter husband, Greta Lee (“Past Lives,” “Russian Doll”) as an art critic with whom Elizabeth has a beef, and Kelly McCormack, a Canadian actor who had a cameo on “The Expanse” (as a captured Martian Marine) and subsequently appeared in a regular role on the series “A League of Their Own,” “Letterkenny,” and “Killjoys;” she also wrote and starred in a 2020 thriller available on Prime, “Sugar Daddy.” Here she appears in what is perhaps the most anodyne role in the film, that of a manager at the cryogenics firm; but with her bulging eyes and large lips she’s a distinctive presence.

“Problemista” ends on surprisingly sweet notes. Everyone gets what they want, even Alejandro’s mother (Catalina Saavedra, who played the put-upon housekeeper in “Rotting in the Sun”), who has an assignment to design public art back in El Salvador. All of the loose ends are tied up almost too neatly, but perhaps this fits the occasionally fairy-tale mood of what is a pleasantly enjoyable film.