Underlay by his immigrant status and queer identity, Salvadoran-American writer/comedian/actor Julio Torres manages to visualize his own fanciful conceits (a creative mind inherited from his artist mother) and welds trendy elements, like cryogenics, NYC art scene, toy design, into his feature directorial debut PROBLEMISTA, chiefly regarding the symbiosis between Alejandro (Torre), a struggling toy designer-to-be and Elizabeth (Swinton), a cuckoo art critic who employs him as her assistant. Trying to secure his toehold in the Big Apple, Alejandro, an immigrant from El Salvador, is not a rudderless young adult adrift in the megalopolis. His vocation is to be a toy designer and he has more than enough talent for it. But after his application to the Hasbro intern program is rejected, he must seek employment to validate his visa. His best chance lies in Elizabeth, who is hurt for an assistant who is conversant with computation, namely, FileMaker Pro, the database application (an initially funny frivolity is magnified ad nauseam, even Swinton looks out of sorts rephrasing that accursed moniker), as she is bent on organizing an exhibition of his painter husband Bobby (RZA), who is currently a "corpsicle" in a cryogenic experiment. The premises are quite far-out, and Swinton risibly makes a splash of that exasperating, overweening self-centeredness which is the sequela of residing in NYC far too long. In her garish get-up, with frizzy, cochineal tresses, Elizabeth is a nightmare for anyone to encounter. But she is tolerated considerably despite of her outrageousness and flamboyance. Perhaps because she doesn't care for pretense, unapologetically being true to herself, a tenet Torres seems to propagate and abide by unconditionally. Only a good boy like Alejandro, whose anonymity almost reduces him to a nonentity (his brush with fetish is a stiff tease), can handle Elizabeth’s eccentricity without protestation, and is emboldened by her to be proactive for once, boldly claims his place in the Hasbro company, other than settling for a stopgap. Still PROBLEMISTA’s allure remains on the surface. For all its scintillating brainwaves (the anthropomorphic Craiglist guy, the dark place where Alejandro must contend with the downside of human nature, etc.), the story is loosey-goosey and Swinton is weighed down with the heavy lifting to keep the wacky storyline afloat while the meet-in-the-future finale doesn’t mount to anything but a beggar belief reaction from Elizabeth. “Looks like we both have made it!” Not enough goodwill (a heightened reconciliation between two rival women), plurality and genderqueer affirmation (cameos from trans-artistes Charlene Incarnate and Shakina, Torres’s boyfriend Scully is cute as a button) could lift PROBLEMISTA from the slapdash assemblage of half-baked ideas and half-hearted novelties. Torres makes a good fist in crafting his debut feature through his own perspective and personal reflections, but mirabile dictu, that will not necessarily set the world on fire. PROBLEMISTA is safely ensconced in its own niche of queer absurdity. referential entries: George Miller's THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (2022, 7.0/10); Sofia Coppola's ON THE ROCKS (2020, 5.9/10).

Title: ProblemistaYear: 2023Country: USALanguage: English, SpanishGenre: ComedyDirector/Screenwriter: Julio TorresMusic: Robert Ouyang Rusli Cinematography: Fredrik WenzelEditors: Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Sara ShawCast:Julio TorresTilda SwintonRZAIsabella RosselliniCatalina SaavedraJames ScullyLaith NakliGreta LeeSpike EinbinderLarry Owens Kelly McCormackMiles G. JacksonMegan StalterJames Seol Greta TitelmanRiver L. RamirezCharlene IncarnateShakinaRating: 6.6/10