PROBLEMISTA (Julio Torres, 2023)

As a longtime Tilda fanboy, and having loved the previews for the film for months now, I looked forward to seeing this but had to wait until to stream it because it had a unusually small theater release. Like nowhere really. Considering all the advance hype and A24’s popularity, it seemed weird, especially after having been inundated with the previews at the cinema. Even with the studio blaming its delayed (non)release on the actors’ strike, I got the vibe this is a film the studio’s trying to memory hole (more on that in a moment).

It’s an absolutely brilliant film, a must for fans of Ms. Swinton, and an all-around exemplary effort by writer/director/star Julio Torres. Another thing that made me smile was seeing the always entertaining RZA in one of his on-point supporting roles. The film’s artful depiction of the Kafkaesque immigration process adds a profundity one doesn’t expect in a NYC comedy, showing Julio Torres to be a rare talent, while the sometimes surreal and psychedelic setups reveal a lighter auteur’s touch ala Michel Gondry or a young Tim Burton. He has workmanlike skills that are made more subtle by the constant and refreshing sense of playfulness or, at worst in some of the more stressful scenes, a childlike bewilderment.

After watching the affecting “disputing a penalty charge with one’s financila institution” scene – one of the best things I’ve seen this year – and noticing that Torres chooses to mention Bank of America by name (and again in the end credits), I now have a theory about why the film wasn’t distributed more widely.

Highly recommended.