Problemista (2023) Review: Kafka With a Toy Designer's Eye

Is Problemista worth watching?

Yes. Problemista is one of the most distinctive American comedies of recent years, a fairy tale about immigration paperwork that is inventive, melancholy and frequently very funny. Julio Torres, who wrote, directed and stars, has a comic voice unlike anyone else’s, and Tilda Swinton gives a fearless performance as a nightmare employer. The reservation is that the film’s whimsy sometimes outweighs its story, and its episodic structure can make the middle stretch feel slight.

What is Problemista about?

Alejandro (Torres) grew up in El Salvador dreaming of designing toys for a major American company. Now in New York, he is working at a cryogenics facility, where the frozen bodies include that of a painter (RZA), when a mistake costs him the job. That job was also sponsoring his work visa, and without a new sponsor he faces being forced to leave the country.

His best chance is Elizabeth (Swinton), the painter’s volatile widow, an art-world figure who wants help mounting an exhibition of her late husband’s work. She offers a way to stay, but working for her is chaos. What follows is a race against the clock through an immigration system as absurd as anything in Alejandro’s imagination.

Problemista runs 104 minutes. It is an American production in English with some Spanish, it premiered at the SXSW festival in 2023, and it was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. Isabella Rossellini narrates, and Catalina Saavedra plays Alejandro’s mother back home.

Bureaucracy turned into a fairy tale

Torres’s approach is to show the immigration process as it feels rather than as it looks. Deadlines become giant hourglasses, bureaucratic hurdles become fantastical landscapes, and the online world of freelance gigs and payment apps is personified in surreal, often hilarious ways. Rossellini’s storybook narration adds to the sense of a modern fable, with a wry, gentle tone that makes the cruelty of the system all the more striking.

The design is meticulous, and it reflects the character. Alejandro is a toy designer at heart, and the film is full of odd objects, pastel colours and carefully composed frames that look like the inside of his head. Few comedies are this visually witty, and many of the best jokes are in the production design rather than the dialogue.

Tilda Swinton goes all in

Swinton is extraordinary as Elizabeth, a whirlwind of entitlement, rage and contradiction, with a wild red mane and an infinite capacity for making simple tasks impossible. She is monstrous and very funny, but the performance also finds the loneliness and grief underneath, and her strange, prickly partnership with Alejandro becomes the film’s emotional core.

Torres makes a perfect foil: soft-spoken, polite and endlessly patient, with a deadpan delivery that lets Swinton’s chaos bounce off him. His quiet decency, against the madness of both his employer and the system, gives the film its underlying sweetness.

Whimsy that sometimes floats away

The film’s strengths are also its limits. The plot is thin, built on a series of comic episodes that vary in effectiveness, and the pacing sags in places as Alejandro’s predicament circles rather than escalates. Viewers who find Torres’s highly stylised humour precious will not be won over, and some of the film’s anger about the immigrant experience is diluted by the sheer amount of whimsy on display.

Who should watch Problemista?

It suits viewers who enjoy surreal, offbeat comedy, stories about immigration and New York, and anyone who has struggled with bureaucracy or a demanding boss. At 104 minutes it is a manageable watch. Content is mild: some strong language and adult themes, but nothing graphic, making it suitable for teenagers and up.

If you like it, try:

• Modern Times, Chaplin’s classic about a little man crushed by an absurd system, the clear ancestor of Torres’s comedy.
• Birdman, a surreal New York satire of art, ego and ambition.
• Anora, a very different New York story about outsiders chasing a version of the American dream.

The verdict

Problemista is an original, funny and heartfelt comedy that finds a new way to talk about the immigrant experience. Its thin plot and heavy whimsy keep it from being a masterpiece, but Torres’s singular vision and Swinton’s unforgettable performance make it a small, strange delight.

Rating: 4/5