Critics reviews

Problemista revitalises tropes of coming of age/starving artist/migration encounter storylines with some madcap energy that’s wacky enough to feel fresh and smart enough to avoid being twee.

“Problemista” is the latest evolution in Torres’ offbeat comedy; it rewards those who know what came before it (“My Favorite Shapes,” “Los Espookys”), but it is not closed off to those who haven’t kept up with all of the in-jokes.

The predominant mode of Problemista is playful, its comic sensibility curious and askew – enough to make the film, a promising if uneven debut, a delight throughout.

Problemista swings so erratically for the fences that Torres doesn’t lock on a target long enough for the film to work up a head of steam as satire about the art world and how it thrives on nepotism, let alone one about the frustrations of the immigration process. But despite its lack of precision, the film makes a very convincing case for Ale’s frustrations with a world that doesn’t coddle him like his mother, as well as for Torres’s belief in art as a narcissistic act of self-care.

If nothing else, Problemista pleasantly reminds us how gifted a comedian Swinton can be, particularly when she’s unburdened of the various facial prosthetics that she’s often had to sport in Wes Anderson’s mannered gewgaws.

The movie is too looney, too specific to be so obvious. It’s the kind of debut that sneaks up on you at a festival––a personal little achievement that feels major. You can’t help but tilt your head with him.

[W]ith his feature debut “Problemista,” writer-director Julio Torres adopts the structure of fairy tales to tell a warm, funny, and thoughtful narrative of the immigrant experience in America.

Problemista, a confident debut whose surrealist ambitions never undercut its heart. Torres, a former SNL writer and a creator of the disappointingly short-lived HBO comedy Los Espookys, uses his distinctive aesthetic to construct a sensitive and keenly observed story of self-actualization.

“Problemista” shows Julio Torres’ visual style and sense of humor work as well on the big screen as they do on TV. His feature directorial debut is a confident, imaginative calling card, a film that has as much to say about the immigrant experience as it does about being an artist trying to remain unique and personal, as it simply delivers an endearing and hilarious comedy.