SNL writer and Los Espookys co-creator Julio Torres brings his unique imagination and perspective to the all-too-familiar challenges of immigration bureaucracy and the disillusionment of the American dream to his directorial debut, Problemista. Loosely based on Torres’ own experiences, the new film follows Alejandro (Torres), an aspiring toy designer who's struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an art-world outcast (Tilda Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country.
Torres had the idea to write a movie about his experiences of immigrating from El Salvador to the US in 2009 and started working on a script five years ago. Yet he admits that he wasn’t quite ready at that point in his life and had to take more time to process and plan. Once he started properly writing the script, he found it difficult to pin down the genre and tone of the movie—until something fell into place. “I didn’t feel like I had anything or understood what I was making until I decided to make Craigslist a person,” he shares. “From there, I understood the tone and mood of the movie which—shocking—is the tone and mood of everything I make. Something unlocked in me and I understood the kind of world that I was hoping to build.”
Despite having those initial difficulties in pinning down the film’s tone, Torres admits that it was always likely going to eventually have his signature surrealist edge. “It’s the only way I’ve found how to tell stories, it’s what comes naturally to me. So I feel like there was no other option,” he says.
Alejandro is desperate to find a sponsor for his visa, or else he’ll be deported within a month. He meets Swinton’s Elizabeth, who may be his only chance of staying in the country. However, she proves incredibly difficult to work with as she’s the “ultimate Karen” and uncompromising with her artistic vision. Portraying Elizabeth, Swinton brings her undeniable presence to the screen as the antagonist. The director didn’t write the character of Elizabeth with anyone in mind to play her, but felt like Swinton was perfect for the role. Recalling the moment he found out that she was interested in the movie, Torres says: “It was truly one of the happiest days [of my life]. I didn’t know that I would be making a friend, and I love working with friends. She was so great. It was so fun. It was truly a joyous experience working with Tilda.”
“I didn’t feel like I had anything or understood what I was making until I decided to make Craigslist a person. From there, I understood the tone and mood of the movie.”
Swinton was heavily involved in the creative process as she collaborated with Torres and the wardrobe departments to create her character’s look. Elizabeth has a memorable style with long crimson hair, heavy eyeshadow, and black leather jackets. The director added that they wanted Elizabeth to feel like “a woman that is both a nightmare and larger than life, but also very real.”
When writing Alejandro, Torres says that there’s a “good chunk” of his own personality in the character; however, he admits that it wasn’t particularly “fun” writing his protagonist because he wanted to keep writing for Elizabeth and imagine different situations she would find herself in. Swinton’s character is a complex one—she can be despicable yet simultaneously conjure empathy from the audience, as she’s a lonely widow who just wants to be seen and heard and live out her late husband’s art legacy.
In a recent interview, Swinton said that this duality of her “villain” reminds her of those in Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. Within the universe of Studio Ghibli, the villains seemingly pose a threat to the protagonist, but throughout the movie they become a “spirit guide” who’s integral to their development, in a similar way that Elizabeth guides Alejandro. Torres believes that he was “subconsciously” influenced by Miyazaki when writing the character of Elizabeth. “What’s interesting about influences is that if they’re truly influential, then they live inside of you unchecked,” he says. “It’s not like there’s a moodboard and you borrow bits from it—it’s more like a shared sensibility.”
Like most A24 movies, Problemista has an incredible artistic quality and visual beauty, which is enhanced by its pronounced surrealism. This is seen through the bright and vibrant colors of the buildings and forests of the movie’s vision of El Salvador. Torres says his mother’s house in the movie is “inspired by his mom’s taste and her sensibilities and colors that she’s attracted to,” adding to the incredibly introspective and personal nature of the movie.
Problemista—which received its world premiere at SXSW 2023 and had already hit select theaters by the time of its wide release this past weekend—has a universal quality to it in the sense that even if you can’t personally relate to the immigration narrative, there are themes of displacement, mortality, and career struggles that just about everyone in this country has experienced. This has been reflected in how the audiences have reacted to the movie. “People seem to like [it],” Torres notes. “People seem to feel connected to it and seen by it, which is very moving. I never presumed that was going to be the case, so seeing that is just wonderful and not [something] I was really thinking about.” FL
